


The Arts of Lying and Bending

by AnotherShotofBourbon



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Asami is a master of lies and secrets, Equalist!Asami, F/F, equalist and traitorous Asami, i'll have warnings before hand when things get harsh and they will get harsh, this is not going to be an easy fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-18 14:24:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 40,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3572948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherShotofBourbon/pseuds/AnotherShotofBourbon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asami Sato has been an Equalist since she was seven years old and her mother was killed by firebenders. But ever since the Avatar came to Republic City four years ago, the Equalist heiress has been having doubts about the less than peaceful non-bending movement. There are many reasons for her to change sides: she doesn't believe in the cause anymore, the Avatar is incredibly attractive, and other reasons she's not ready to admit to herself. Then again, Asami Sato lives her life in lies, and maybe, just maybe, with the Avatar she's willing to let go of a few.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Friend Within a Sea of Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Avatar has been trying to stop the flow of weapons going to the Equalists for months, but none of the charges ever stick to Future Industries or its CEO Asami Sato. But that might all change when Korra is contacted by an Equalist who says she wants to change sides.

“Ladies and gentlemen we now take you live to the Future Industries press conference,” the radio announcer said. “Asami Sato, the twenty year old CEO, is taking the stage to address rumors that her father, Hiroshi Sato, Future Industries founder has been siding with the Equalists.”

Korra frowned as she listened the broadcast. She’d been trying to take down the Equalists and their weapon supplier Hiroshi Sato for years, ever since she got to Republic City four years ago. They haven’t made any progress. The Equalists operate in isolated cells, every time the Avatar takes down one cell another one pops up from nowhere. And trying to find anything on Future Industries was impossible.

“Asami Sato,” the radio continued. “Looking dashing as always, her speech is going to start momentarily.”

“Hello everyone,” Asami said into the microphone.

She was immediately interrupted by reporters all demanding answers to questions they were all asking at once.

“I’ll be taking questions in a moment,” Asami said loudly over the questions in a calm that Korra envied. “I’m here first and foremost to address the persistent rumors about my father’s, my companies’, ties to the Equalist Rights movement.”

Korra snorted. “Terrorist movement more like it.”

“After several investigations by the Avatar and the police, no evidence was ever found to support these rumors. So they are just that, rumors.”

The Avatar shivered. The CEO was so… slippery. Slimey. She was like a snake. Slipping through every net they set up trying to capture her.

“I’ve done everything the police have asked of me,” Asami continued. “My company has waste hundreds of hours and millions of yuans to try and help the police. Only to have them come after my father and me over and over again. I’m here to say that Future Industries will no longer be cooperating with the police, unless they can prove without the shadow of a doubt that my father or my company are at fault.”

The reporters immediately started talking all over one another.

“I will no longer be taking any questions about my father’s rumored involvement with the Equalist movement,” Asami said. “Yes?”

A reporter spoke up. “What is your opinion on the Equalist movement?”

“As I’ve stated,” Asami answered, “I do not support the Equalists directly. However, I think their ideas, equality for all people, benders and non-benders alike is a noble and just idea.”

“Yeah, I don’t support terrorists, but man their ideas are so great,” Korra muttered angrily as she shut off the radio.

The Avatar took a few minutes to sulk angrily before she left her room.

Before she could get very far a blue and white robbed White Lotus member found her.

He bowed low, “Avatar, we have a message for you.”

Korra bowed back. “Yes, what is it?”

“Uh, apparently there is a defector within the Equalist movement. Someone wants talk with you.”

“So you’re saying that there is a traitor who wants to speak with the Avatar? What makes you think this is going to be any different than the other times they tried this tactic?” Korra asked.

“This tip was verified by Chief Beifong first,” the White Lotus said.

“And let me guess, they want to meet me alone,” Korra frowned.

“Yes.”

“Well I hope that this ‘informant’ doesn’t mind me bringing some friends. I’m not falling for this trick twice,” Korra said as she ran off to find Mako and Bolin.

This so called informant wanted to meet the Avatar, alone, at the Republic City Wharfs at midnight. Korra brought her friends, Mako and Bolin to watch her back. Last time someone tried this tactic she walked into a veritable army of Chi Blockers. She wasn't going in without back-up.

“Bolin and I will stay here,” Mako said as they arrived at the docks. The plan was for them to stay well back, out of sight, just in case. “What are you doing?”

Bolin was ‘reading’ a paper, with two holes cut out in the middle of it for him to look through. “What?” he asked. “You said we needed to remain inconspicuous! This is me being inconspicuous! Look, I’m just sitting here reading a paper. Except I’m not! I’m keeping a look out! See?”

“Whatever,” Mako said.

“Just be ready to go,” Korra said. “I don’t like this.”

She stepped forward and into the dark shadows that pooled around the warehouses.

At the appointed spot, Korra stood ready. Her entire body was taut, ready for anything. She was getting more and more uneasy, especially since her contact was late.

Just as she was about to leave a voice, muffled by a mask called, “Avatar?”

Korra whipped around to face the source of the voice. She saw a completely masked person, an Equalist given the garb and the head gear. But the proportions suggested a woman.

“Yeah,” Korra said. “And who are you?”

The Equalist shrugged. “A friend.”

“Right.”

“Sorry I’m late. But then again, I forgive you,” the Equalist shrugged.

“Forgive me for what?”

“Not honoring your end of the bargain. I said come alone.”

Korra’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”

“I just wanted to make sure we weren’t interrupted.”

“What did you do?” Korra demanded. Her stance shifted. She was settling into a bending stance.

“Your friends are fine. I just tied them up is all,” the Equalist said, adjusting her stance as well.

Korra frowned and made to throw a rock at the Equalist who started to move herself, but for some reason the rock went very wide. That was strange, she could have sworn she facing the right direction.

Before Korra could regroup and hit the Equalist back, she got in close and with a series of rapid hits, Korra lost her bending. The Equalist was the real deal. A highly trained chi blocker.

Korra slumped to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” the muffled voice of the Equalist said. But it sounded like she was genuinely concerned. At the same time it was hard to tell. “I can’t have you fighting me. I’m trying to help you.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to help you,” the Equalist sighed. “How badly do you want to take down the Satos and Future Industries?”

Korra’s eyes narrowed. “Badly.”

“Good,” the Equalist said. “I signed up for Equality. I didn’t sign up for this… war… this terrorist operation.”

“Then why not take off the mask and we can talk.”

“Not on your life Avatar. You’re cute and all, but not that cute. I can’t just go around showing my face to everyone. That is a one way ticket to getting me killed. Have you seen what happens to people who betray the Equalist movement?”

Korra shook her head. “I wasn’t aware many people tried to leave it.”

“Exactly.”

“Fine. I’ll go along with this. It’s not like I have much a choice at this point.”

“Start here,” the Equalist said as she dropped a piece of paper on Korra’s limp hands.

“What is this?”

“It is a little bit of industrial espionage that Future Industries has been involved in. You follow up on that lead and we’ll talk again. Just don’t screw it up,” the Equalist said as she started to back away from Korra. “And next time, you really need to come alone.”

“Korra!” yelled Mako as he threw a fireball at the Equalist.

The fire blazed in the darkness and the Equalist was just suddenly gone. Nothing but an empty patch of dirt where the Equalist was just standing.

“I’m fine,” she called. “You guys ok?”

“Yeah,” Mako responded as he helped her up. “We got ambushed. Your Equalist traitor snuck up on us and tied us up. I thought for sure you were done for.”

“Apparently she really values her privacy,” she said.

“What do you think?” he asked. “Is this for real?”

“I don’t know,” Korra said looking at the slip of paper. “What do you know about Cabbage Corp?”

“A bunch of their executives were arrested for selling weapons to the Equalists. It basically cleared Future Industries of any suspicion,” Mako said. “I can talk to Chief Beifong and see if I can get the file.”

“It sounds like a plan,” Korra said. “Let’s get going.”

Meanwhile, Asami Sato returned to her mansion, it was late but someone was waiting for her.

“Asami,” came the voice of her father. “Where have you been?”

Asami glared at the elder Sato. “Cleaning up your mess.”

Hiroshi said, “Asami, you know my cause. Our cause. We need to help the Equalists. Otherwise us non-benders will forever be second class citizens.”

“Look around you!” Asami yelled. “We’ve never been anywhere close to second class! You gave me the company so that we’d be clear of any suspicions but that only works if you stop saying such hateful Equalist things in public!”

“Come now Asami. You know these benders will stop at nothing until they take everything from us. They took your mother, and they’re trying to take the company. We need to be united. Together we can tear down the bending establishment,” Hiroshi said calmly.

“I know, I know,” Asami muttered. “I’m sorry dad. I’m just trying to keep our company afloat. It’s just hard trying to do this and be an Equalist at the same time. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for sleep.”

“It’s ok,” Hiroshi said as he hugged his daughter. “Everything will be over soon. I’ve spoken with Amon. He says that we are getting ready for the final stages. We have almost reached the gates of chaos. It should just take a couple more months before all benders in the city have been Equalized, and we restore true order.”

Asami forced a smile. “That’s good. I just need some rest.”

“Get some sleep my dear,” Hiroshi said. “We’ll talk again in the morning.”

She nodded and walked to her bedroom. She changed out of her fancy press conference dress and threw herself onto the bed.

“Don’t take too long Korra,” she whispered to herself. “I don’t know how much longer I can manage this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a few Equalist!Asami fics out there and this is me trying to make one with my own personal style. I'm using this little (right now it is like 17k words and I'm still not done yet...) fic to work on my sleight of hand and foreshadowing. If you're willing, let's find out if I'm effective.  
> Also I'll update this on *coughs loudly gives noncommittal waggily hand gesture*


	2. Factory Floor Quality Espionage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Equalist Traitor has given Korra a possible lead into bringing down Future Industries and the Sato family. It is just a question of following the lead.

“Avatar,” Lin Beifong, the chief of police greeted Korra as she entered the police station the next day. “How did your meeting with the informant go?”

Korra shrugged. “She chi blocked me and beat up Mako and Bolin. But she gave us a tip that might pan out.”

“What was it?”

“She told us to investigate the Cabbage Corp case,” Korra answered.

“Why?” Beifong asked. It was one of her cases. What could possibly have gone wrong with it?

Korra just shrugged. “I have no idea. She just seemed to think that it was somehow important to bringing down Future Industries.”

“Did you get a face or a name?” Beifong asked.

“No. She wasn’t very trusting. She said that bad things happen to people who try to leave the Equalists.”

“We’ve never heard of people leaving the Equalists.”

“I think that was her point,” Korra shrugged again. “If I can just see the file I’ll take a look and see what’s there so I can tell this Equalist girl there’s nothing there.”

“Fine, you and your boyfriend take a look,” Beifong told her. “Just make sure that you  tell me anything that you find. Even if you don’t find a single thing.”

“Roger,” Korra responded sarcastically giving Beifong a salute.

Outside, Mako was waiting for her. “How’d it go?”

“Beifong gave us permission to look over everything.”

“I’ll get the reports,” Mako said.

“And I’ll get the snacks.”

Several hours later, Korra was frustrated and banging her head against the desk. “We’ve read this entire thing three times. I don’t see anything here to implicate Future Industries or the Satos.”

“Maybe if we just look one more time,” Mako commented as he flipped back to the first page again.

“Ugh, I can’t just sit here any more,” Korra whined. “I’m going to try and clear my head.”

She needed to be outside. Somewhere outside the police station. Fresh air, that’d help her clear her head.

After several minutes of aimless wanderings Korra felt someone watching her. Darkness had fallen, so there were plenty of shadows for someone to hide in. She whipped around and fire leapt from her hand.

A dry chuckle from her left caused her to turn again. “If I was behind you that would have almost been… concerning.”

Even muffled, she recognized the voice. “You.”

“Me,” the masked Equalist said. “How is the investigation going?”

“Painfully slow,” Korra admitted. “There is no connect between the two companies. There is absolutely no evidence that anyone other than Cabbage Corp was supplying the Equalists with weapons.”

The Equalist sighed. “Some of the cops were in on it. You need to redo the entire investigation. Start from scratch. I can’t hold your hand the entire time.”

“I never asked for you to hold my hand!” Korra said defensively.

Another dry chuckle. “Is it really that bad to consider?”

“You’re an Equalist.”

“And you’re the most bending bender to ever bend,” Asami quipped. “But beside the point. Keep looking into it. We don’t have much time. Amon is pushing forward his plans.”

“What plans?”

“Even I don’t know that. That’s only reserved for the inner circle. I have lots of information, but I don’t know that.”

Korra groaned. “Fine. Can I at least have your name? I mean it is getting a little confusing just referring to you as ‘the Equalist’.”

The masked Equalist woman was silent for a second. “Yasuko.”

“Pretty name,” Korra said. “Can I get a pretty face to go with the name?”

The Equalist shook her head. “I’ve already said too much. I’ve… I’ve got to go.”

She suddenly sprinted passed Korra, who was caught briefly flat-footed. The Equalist got a head start and turned an alley corner. Korra swore she heard the sound of a rock sliding, but when she got to the corner, the Equalist was completely and entirely gone. It looked like she used a small rubble pile to vault up to the scaffolding on the side of the building.

“Shit,” Korra swore. This Yasuko was damn good.

She returned to the police station and sat down heavily. “Find anything Mako?”

He shook his head.

“I think I have an idea,” Korra said.

“What is it?”

“I think we have to redo the entire case, from scratch,” Korra said. “Like if we were the detectives to get this case. How would we close the case?”

“What gave you this idea?”

“A friend,” Korra muttered.

“You met the Equalist? What did she say?” Mako demanded. His worry for Korra’s safety came across as anger that she met the potential dangerous criminal.

“She told me that some of your coworkers aren’t exactly up to snuff,” Korra snapped. “She also said that we don’t have much time. Amon is putting his plans into full effect. I also got her name.”

“What is it? What are the plans?”

“She didn’t know, it was only reserved for the inner circle,” Korra said. “And her name is Yasuko.”

Mako noticed the little smile on her face. “Someone’s got a crush,” he said in a little sing-song voice.

“Don’t you?”

He just shrugged.

“Anyways,” Korra said. “Who were the investigating detectives?”

Mako closed the file to read the cover. He groaned. “Lu and Gang.”

“What?”

“Besides being just completely awful at their jobs, I haven’t seen them in a day or two,” Mako said.

“Do you think…”Korra said.

“Think what?”

“No… Nevermind. Forget it.”

“What?”

“Is it possible they were on the take?”

“Are you suggesting they were dirty?” Mako demanded.

“Maybe. If they weren’t why haven’t they been at work for two days? That’s a pretty big offense,” Korra suggested.

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good point. Their lazy, but not one to never show up,” Mako mused. He stood up and opened the door and grabbed a passing patrol man. “Officer, send a patrol to Lu and Gang’s places. Find them and tell them I want to talk to them. If they protest tell them the Chief gave me permission to put a hold on their paychecks.”

“Yes sir,” the patrolman saluted.

When Mako returned he found Korra searching through files, looking for something.

“Find something?” he asked.

“The security guard, the one that called the initial tip in. I kind find any records of him more than three days after the report was filed.”

“And?”

“He was hired two days before he called the tip in, then he mysteriously disappeared three days after. It is super suspicious.”

“That is weird,” Mako agree. “I’m going to have some run a complete background check on this guy.”

Before he could do anything he was interrupted by a knock at the door. A patrolman stuck his head in the room. “Detective Mako?”

“What is it?”

“We sent the patrol cars to Lu and Gang’s apartments.”

“And?”

“They’re dead, sir.”


	3. Mistakes Were Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra continues her investigation and with some help finally stumbles on the key to bringing down Future Industries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In apology for deleting the first chapter, here is a super special ultra bonus chapter today.  
> FYI We get a brief description of the dead bodies at the start of the chapter. If that's not your thing skip ahead to paragraph 2.

Mako had been in the office with the Chief for several hours. Korra couldn’t stomach the crime scene photos. The twisted, almost vivisected corpses of what were once police officers, were the stuff of nightmares. According to the coroner, almost every single bone in their bodies were broken, the muscles locked in rigid, unnatural poses. All of the blood seemingly ripped from their bodies. She couldn’t look at the corpses that the Equalists left behind, or more accurately, the remains of corpses. So Korra left the room and let the professions deal with that tragedy, and was running names. She'd hit a complete block when trying to run down the location of the whistle blowing security guard. She'd tasked a patrolman with calling the city morgues to see if anyone matched her man's description. In the mean time she was looking through birth records to see if she could find any Yasuko.

She was coming up empty. Anyone she found that was of approximate age, was somewhere that all but disqualified her from being an Equalist or was a known bender.

She did stumble across a Yasuko that gave birth almost twenty one years ago. But she doubted that the middle aged mother was a secret Equalist informant. Her last name caught her eye though. Sato. As in the mother of Asami Sato. Wife of Hiroshi.

Killed in a robbery by a firebender.

Korra felt bad for the little girl in the police file. She empathized. A trauma, that young, it was clear why they were Equalists. But that didn't excuse their actions.

Korra frowned. It was obvious that Yasuko wasn't her Equalist's name. But was it just another clue? A little bread crumb for a clever Avatar to follow? If so, why? What's the purpose? Just to give her circumstantial evidence that the Satos were Equalists?

Mako appeared, interrupting Korra's introspection. "The Chief and I are going to look over Lu and Gang's crime scenes. She wants all hands on deck for this."

"I get it," Korra said. "You do what you have to. I'm going to grab Bolin and see if we can track down this security guard."

"Ok, be safe," Mako said clapping her on the shoulder.

"You too officer."

Korra, several minutes later, was knocking at Bolin’s apartment door.

“What is it? I’m trying to sleep!” Bolin called.

“It’s barely even eleven,” Korra said.

When Bolin opened the door he gave Korra a look and said, “I need my beauty sleep!”

“Come on, we’ve got a lead,” Korra told him. “We need to find a security guard who might have helped set up Cabbage Corp.”

“Ok, ok, let me get some butt kicking pants on,” Bolin mumbld.

Twenty minutes later, he had changed and they were finally on the way. Korra handed him the cup of coffee she’d brought with her.

“You are the best Avatar ever!” he cried taking the cup and downing half of the merely warm liquid in a single gulp.

When they arrived at the apartment that once belonged to Shin Kuzinagi, no one answered the door. Korra wasn’t terribly surprised.

“Well that was fruitless,” Bolin said.

She frowned and then kicked at the door. The locked wood broke under her attacks. “Its open now.”

“Can we do that?”

“Doesn’t matter, it’s done.”

Korra stepped into the apartment that looked like it had been untouched for days. A thin layer of dust covered everything.

“What do we need to look for?” Bolin asked.

“Anything that connects this Shin guy to the Satos or Future Industries.”

“Helpful.”

Korra started looking in drawers and opening things, while Bolin was refiling through papers.

After several minutes of searching Bolin said, “Oh hey! Look this guy was paid by Future Industries!”

He’d found a pay stub that Shin had kept on his desk.

Korra rushed over and grabbed it. “This could be it!” she said, until she read it.

“No this said he was paid by Future’s Industry, LLC,” Korra said.

“So what?”

“Its a different company,” Korra pointed out.

“It’s basically the same,” Bolin shrugged.

“You know what, you’re right. They are basically the same, there’s no way that the real Future Industries would ever stand for that,” the Avatar muttered as she tucked the pay stub into her jacket. “There’s someone I need to talk to.”

Korra waited for the mysterious Equalist who was probably not really named Yasuko for almost three hours.

When she finally arrived Korra was just starting to doze off.

“I didn’t realize you were looking for me,” she said.

“You need like a signal light, Equalist Girl, or something,” Korra said. “Or maybe you can just give me your phone number.”

From beneath her mask, Asami blushed. “As much as I’d like to, I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Maybe we could just establish a date or something.”

“If we made it a date, I don’t think I can make it every single time. Maybe some kind of code.”

“Whatwere you thinking?” Korra asked. She’d never been one for being subtle.

“You can put out a personal ad in the newspaper.”

Korra laughed, “That’s a little forward dontcha think?”

“Not like that,” Asami sighed. “Unless you want it to be like that, then…”

“No!” Korra objected, almost too much.

“Fine,” she responded, sounding dejected, or perhaps rejected. Then after a pause continued, “I was thinking you put out a request for a Pi Sho opponent. Just don’t sign it as from the Avatar or anything, it would be a little on the nose.”

Korra felt as if she had done something wrong. “So if say… a bending enthusiast were looking for a Pai Sho opponent, who would respond?”

The Equalist tilted her head slightly. “How about… a mechanic?”

“You like to build things?”

“I have a soft spot for rebuilding car engines,” Asami shrugged. “What can I say?”

Korra smiled. “Nothing. But what I needed to talk to you about,” she said, trying to get back on topic, “was this thing I found at the Cabbage Corp security guard’s apartment. He was being paid by a company called Future’s Industry.”

“You’ve found it,” the Equalist said, pride seeping into her voice. “Future’s Industry is a shell corporation. It was founded by Hiroshi Sato and run by a number of high ranking Equalists. They use it to buy off people and make bribes. The genius of it is that when all of the tax forms and police crews looked at the true Future Industries’ books and the only thing they’d see is a typo, a charming misspelling. It was bound to happen every now and again. But when it comes to actually investigating the company, to seizing assets and whatnot they are two very different companies. You were never able to find what you were looking for because it was hiding in the other company.”

“Son of a bitch,” Korra breathed.

“It is rather clever,” Asami said, an impressed edge in her muffled voice.

“What should I do?”

“The Equalists have people everywhere. You can just do the usual and get a judge to sign off on a warrant. They’ll know and they’ll start destroying evidence. You need to get Chief Beifong, and Councilman Tenzin to find a judge to quietly sign off on a warrant to seize all of the fake Future Industries’ documents and such.”

“You’re telling me that the Equalists have paid off judges and stuff, but they never got to the Chief?” Korra asked. She never honestly believed that Lin Beifong would ever be dirty, but a little bit of her dislike was coming through.

“Hiroshi often refers to her as the Unbendable Beifong because of how impervious she is to bribes.”

“What about Councilman Tarloq? He hates the Equalist movement even more than Tenzin,” Korra pointed out.

“There’s something about that guy that rubs me the wrong way. The way Amon and some of the Inner Circle refer to him. It seems like they know him or are familiar with him in some way. I don’t trust him is all.”

“Do you think he’s with the Equalists?”

“No… I just don’t think he’s on your… our side is all.”

“Thanks,” Korra said. “I’ll be sure to get to work on this right away.”

“The sooner the better.”

“Thank you,” Korra called suddenly, as Asami started to walk away into the night. “Thanks for all of the information and the help and risking your ass to help us.”

The Equalist turned and said, “You can’t tell but I’m smiling. You’re welcome. And I’m sorry that I kept you waiting so long.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Korra responded instantly, resorting to pulling on one of her hair plaits in a nervous habit. “I mean you’re doing more for the cause than most people I know. You’re kind of a badass. I don’t know if I’d have the courage to do what you’re doing, if I was in your position. I kind of look up to you.”

Asami’s head cocked to the side ever so slightly. She took a couple of steps forward. “Really? I’m not a role model. I was an Equalist for a long time. I’ve done a lot of bad things in my day.”

“If this is all over tomorrow, we arrest the Satos and Amon and the whole Equalist movement just falls apart. What do you do?”

The Equalist didn’t say anything for a long time. Maybe it was because Asami knew that Korra included her being in prison, but the Avatar didn’t know that. What should she say? How would she answer that? Assuming she wasn’t in prison, like Korra assumed this character she was playing wouldn’t be, what would she do?

“Would it be presumptuous to ask you out then?” she asked.

Korra felt the pink blush rising in her cheeks. “No. I think that would be something I could go for. But I’ve never been that good at waiting.”

The Equalist reached up and pulled off the face mask. Her skin was pale and perfect, her lips a smooth and supple pink.

She leaned in and kissed Korra. It could barely even be considered a kiss, it was so light. Just barely skin contact, lips meeting lips. Soft, sweet, barely even there.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” the Equalist stuttered. “I shouldn’t have… I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry.”

Korra just smiled, her cheeks still red. She couldn’t see any more of the woman’s face besides her lips, and they were gorgeous.

She reached up and put her hands around the taller woman’s shoulders to draw her in.

The second kiss was much better. It was longer, it was better. But then it was suddenly over.

Asami pushed Korra away. “No… I can’t… I shouldn’t… We shouldn’t…”

Korra nodded, understanding the Equalist’s fears. “I get it. But just think of it as a promise.”

“A promise of what?”

“Things to come,” Korra said confidently. “We both have to come out of this war on the other side. And when we do, we get our date.”

Korra saw the Equalist’s pale lips twitch into what could have been a smile, but it was quickly covered up by the return of the lower half of the mask.

As Asami turned to walk away from the lovely brown skinned Avatar she knew that in the end they would come out on other sides of the war, it just wasn’t how Korra meant it.


	4. The Life and Lies of Asami Sato

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The many lies Asami Sato tells to others and to herself just so she can sleep at night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for the contractually mandatory Asami Sato Backstory Chapter. I at least tried to vary the form a little bit to make it interesting. Also I've written like 7,000 words today and thought I'd share.  
> Suggested listening: Hoodoo by Muse. You'll find lots of references to the song in this short chapter.

That night Asami had a dream of the life she had before. It was a dream she’d had often, even when waking.

In her dream, she had a picture of the life she could have had: her mother was still alive. Yasuko Sato, the matriarch of the Sato family, never had to give her life for her daughter.

Yasuko never gave her life to stop the gang of firebenders from kidnapping her daughter. And because she lived and the kidnapping never happened, Asami had a normal childhood, a happy childhood. She was loved for who she was instead of tolerated, accepted instead of used.

She grew up learning mechanics and engineering from her mother, business and systems from her father, not learning from her mother’s ghost through half finished sketches and incomplete notebooks with half-baked ideas. It was a happy childhood where she never saw the inside of the innumerable martial arts classes, chi blocking seminars, anti-bending propaganda marches, weapons manufacturing lines, or the numerous doctor’s offices telling her that she was depressed.

Her father wanted to kill the man responsible for destroying his family, Asami wanted him to pay. She always thought her father’s pain was just as raw as hers, and that maybe she was grieving wrong. He was bitter and angry, Asami was sad and depressed, but determined. She made sure to help the police in any way she could. She testified at the trial to make sure the man who killed her mother would never walk free again.

Even after the man was sent to prison for his entire life, Hiroshi was just as angry. Asami felt guilty that she wasn’t as mad as her father, she thought that maybe, just maybe, if she stood by him through his grief they could go back to the way it was before, they could go back to being a family. And sometimes, when she couldn’t sleep, she told herself that he did. His grief ran its course, and they stopped being Equalists.

When Asami was seven years old she lost her mother, and she started to lie to herself just so she could sleep.

When she was nine she realized that her father’s anger had turned to hate and she started to lie to herself that he didn’t really mean it, he just missed Yasuko, like she did.

When she was ten she lied to her father about who she was becoming. It was better for him this way.

When she turned sixteen she realized she had been lying to herself about who she was. Once she realized the truth she couldn’t ever turn away from it, she couldn’t unsee it and she hated herself because she wasn’t the perfectly straight little Equalist girl her father wanted her to be. From that day forward she lied to everyone about who she was and how she felt.

Every day for almost thirteen years Asami lied to herself. The lie was that she was loved for who she was instead of hiding that person deep inside.

The lie was familiar, and it was artificial. But it was the lie Asami told herself every night before she went to sleep.

However this time the recurring nightmare was interrupted by thoughts of dark lips and long hair.

Asami kissed the Avatar. For a second she smiled, as she stared up at the dark ceiling of her room. All of her old lies briefly forgotten.

Then she remembered what she called Korra, “the bendiest bender to ever bend.” That was a phrase she actually uttered.

Asami tried to  smother herself with the pillow. She was such a dork, a huge, impossible dork. Who says things like that?

Apparently Asami “I Have A Crush on the Avatar” Sato. Asami “I’m the Daughter to the Most Powerful Equalist Industrialist the Country” Sato, has a crush on the Avatar.

She didn’t have time for the massive panic attack that would have normally accompanied that thought, because she was too busy drifting to sleep with lies of possible futures with her dating the Avatar danced quietly in her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait a second... 1) Dead mother due to kidnapping (attempt), 2) less than ideal father, 3) rich, 4) wonderful toys and gadgets used to fight evil, 5) enjoys sleeping with the finer sex, 6) secret identity, 7) kind of pale and usually associated with the color red?  
> FUCK ME  
> I've been writing Asami Sato: Batwoman!  
> Seriously though most of that was unintentional (and will start differentiating a lot more once we get farther into the story proper), but JH Williams III and W Haden Blackman's run on Batwoman is fucking astounding and you should all read Elegy, Hydrology, To Drown the World, and World's Finest. High quality comics.


	5. That Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Future Industries is facing the heat, a real legitimate police investigation is turning up all their dirty secrets. Unfortunately it is happening at the same time as Asami and Korra start to grow closer together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been on a roll writing today. And last chapter was short as hell. So here's more!  
> It is a bit longer and a bit more tantilizing in that I show you what you/the characters want before RIPPING IT AWAY from you.  
> Because I'm nothing if not evil.

The next two weeks for Asami were absolute hell. The Republic City Police Force did a search and seizure on all of (the fake) Futures Industry’s assets, paperwork, everything.

She had to pretend she had no idea what was happening when Hiroshi started panicking and ordering employees to destroy documents. More than a few employees were arrested for destroying evidence.

During the day she was trying so hard to keep the real Future Industries afloat. The company was rapidly losing investors, on top of having to undergo another round of intense police scrutiny. Then during the night she was expected to help in Equalist raids to protect and hide the weapons designed for them before they could be seized by the police. But Asami had been feeding the locations to Team Avatar so it seemed like every night Korra and her were squaring off.

The whole thing left her tired and irritable.

“Asami,” Hiroshi called as she went to leave the mansion after midnight. “Where are you going?”

“I’m off, once again, to fix one of your messes. How could you not tell me about your secret shell corporation inside our company to fund the Equalists?” Asami accused turning the conversation onto her father so her own actions wouldn’t seem as suspicious. “You never even really gave me control in the first place!”

“It was for your own good,” Hiroshi said.

“Nothing you’ve done in the last ten years has been for my own good!” Asami yelled. “Everything has been a quest for your insane revenge! I’m trying to save the one part of mom that’s still alive. You would just as soon see it destroyed!”

She stormed out of the mansion. Her father was pushing her further than she can manage. And she was sorely tired, she hadn’t been working in the garage as much as she would have liked. Without her stress relief she was starting to lose it. Then there was her constantly squaring off against the fit and impressive and attractive Korra every night. The tan woman was invading Asami’s dreams and it was not helping her stress levels at all.

In today’s paper she read a personal ad that said, “Bending enthusiast apologizes to her Pai Sho opponent. Care for a game?”

Korra was reaching out to her. She wanted to meet, and for the first time in two weeks she was actually kind of excited.

All dressed up in her Equalist garb, making sure her face was hidden, Asami went to the designated meeting spot.

Korra was already waiting. Her perfect, sculpted arms revealed in her sleeveless light blue shirt.

“I got your message,” Asami said from the shadows.

Korra whipped around. “Hey, I didn’t see you there.”

Beneath her mask, Asami smiled. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I wanted to apologize,” Korra said. “What happened last time we met…” She trailed off a subtle pink hue clinging to her cheeks.

“I should apologize,” Asami replied. “I kissed you and I’m sorry. It was wrong, I shouldn’t have done it. You’ve probably got a boyfriend or something.” She was rambling, it was so unlike her.

“No! I didn’t mind. And I don’t really have a boyfriend or anything,” Korra said, pulling on one of her hair ties.

“Oh,” Asami said, realizing what that mean. “I’m sorry anyways.”

Korra gave her a little half-smile. “I guess it is a little awkward since we don’t really know all that much about each other.”

Asami was glad for the mask, so the Avatar couldn’t see her blushing when she said, “I know plenty about you. You’re the Avatar, you’re kind of all over the news.”

“So you know everything about me, but I don’t even get your real name?” Korra asked.

“I’m sorry,” Asami muttered as she took an involuntary step back. “I can’t…”

“No, no, I shouldn’t have pushed.”

“Ugh, I’m sorry,” Asami responded. “I’m trying, but it just hard to put myself out there. I have a lot to lose.”

“I get it,” Korra muttered. “Maybe when this thing is all over we can do this the right way?”

Asami smiled underneath her mask. “I think I’d like that.”

An awkward silence covered the two.

“What now?” the Equalist asked.

“Uh… I don’t know. I didn’t plan this that far,” Korra shrugged, with another one of her wonderful little smiles that made Asami all warm inside. And for the sixth or seventh time she considered ripping off her mask and kissing the Avatar. But she never did.

“You know when we fight,” she said instead of the steadily growing list of confessions she had, “you aren’t very good about getting out of close quarters.”

“I’m awesome at fighting!” Korra snapped.

Asami laughed. “What I mean is that we rely on getting close to our opponents.” She reinforced the statement by getting into Korra’s personal space. “From here we can chi block you and take away your bending, or we can use most of our weapons. The electro-glove and the sticks all require use to be within touching distance. The only weapon we have that has range are the bolas which are hard to aim and have the shortest incapacitating time. Besides, you can very easily just dodge or bend them out of the way. You need to concentrate on being able to get yourself distance from your opponent.”

“I see,” Korra said.

“Come on. Try to bend me out of the way.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Asami scoffed. “That didn’t seem to stop you when we fought yesterday.”

“Well that’s because you never seem to be where I expect you when we fight. My aim always feels a little off when it comes to you.”

_Let the comment go Asami_ , she thought.

“Oh come on,” Asami urged. “If you don’t I’ll chi block you!”

Korra’s stance shifted quickly as she pushed Asami out of the way with a gentle wave of earth.

“Good, but you’re the Avatar, I’m pretty sure you can do better.”

And that was how their tradition was born. Whenever they had a free night that wasn’t filled with Avatar business, secret Sato business, or fights between Team Avatar and the Equalists the pair would meet up in an empty Future Industries warehouse and spar.

Korra started bringing snacks and from there it turned into light sparring sessions with advice freely given before sharing a small picnic.

They’d make small talk and Korra started adding to her small list of what she knew about Not-Yasuko the Equalist Traitor:

  * She loves spicy food but hates anything bitter
  * When she talks about something she’s passionate about (list includes: cars, engineering, pro-bending) she talks with her hands
  * At least one parent, if not both, were dead
  * She’s been an Equalist almost her whole life
  * But her qualms about the movement have been growing for at least five years
  * She’s smart as all hell
  * She’s insanely brave too
  * She doesn’t get nearly as much sleep as she should (considering the number of times during the end of the night picnic she’s fallen asleep on Korra’s shoulder)



“You should consider wearing those metalbending police uniforms,” Asami pointed out one night about a week and a half after their routine was established. “They stop all attempts at chi blocking.”

Korra gave a noncommittal shrug. “But I’m not a metalbender and they are heavy and slow. Plus they conduct electricity like no one’s business.”

“True,” Asami said as she took a bite of a dumpling Korra brought. Her face plate long since forgotten.

The Avatar was staring at the woman’s pale lips. She really wanted to kiss them, but that would just make everything so much more complicated than it already was.

“What about one of these?” Asami asked as she pulled at her own leather Equalist garb.

“Wear an Equalist uniform?” Korra responded suspicious. “That sounds ridiculous.”

“No, this material. It’s made by a specialty corporation out in the Fire Nation. It doesn’t completely stop chi blocking, but it makes it a lot harder. Here give me your arm.”

Korra extended her right arm and the Equalist woman pulled off her gloves and touched the slightly sweaty brown skin. They both pretended not to notice the lingering touch.

“Chi blocking requires hitting five out of the nine pressure points on the opponent’s arms or legs. Arms are easier and it is a lot harder for most people to bend with just their legs.” She then demonstrated the locations by rapidly punching Korra’s arm in several spots. Instantly the Avatar’s arm felt like she had dunked it into the arctic sea. She flexed her fingers but couldn’t bend.

“I can’t do anything,” Korra muttered and she saw the Equalist frown.

“You could still punch me,” she said darkly under her breath. “Here.” A couple more rapid, harsh punches in specific spots on Korra’s arm changed the feeling. It felt like someone was taking a hot piece of rebar and tracing her nerves with it.

“Ow!” she cried.

She looked over her arm to make sure everything was ok, but when she looked up she saw the girl she only knew as Yasuko pulling her long sleeved Equalist armor over her head. Her thin, slightly damp from their sparring a few minutes ago, cotton shirt clung to her heaven blessed anatomy. Korra was given plenty of time to stare as the Equalist struggled to get the leather over her still helmeted head.

Eventually Asami threw the leather at the still staring Korra. “Put that on.”

The Avatar nodded and pulled the clothing over her head. It was a little tight across the chest and not quite long enough. She smelled the Equalist’s scent, sweat and... was that violets?

“Arm please?”

Korra extended a hand.

Asami took another moment to savor the closeness before attempting the chi blocking technique again.

This time Korra felt only a mild tingling sensation, like part of her arm fell asleep.

“See?”

“What happened?” she asked.

“The armor makes it harder for us to find the pressure points and apply the right amount of force,” Asami explained. “It’s not 100% effective but it is a lot better than nothing.”

Korra had a small fire dancing at her fingertips. “I agree. Where can I get one of these?”

“I’ll get you the name of the place tomorrow, I don’t recall off the top of my head.”

“The sooner the better,” Korra muttered.

“I know, we don’t want the Avatar to lose her bending.”

Korra just smiled as she handed back the top. “I just wish I could get one that actually fits. You’re so much taller than me.”

“Yeah, well you’re more well endowed than me, so…” Asami trailed off into a yawn. “I should probably get going.”

“See you tomorrow?” Korra asked.

“Probably,” Asami waved.

The next day, Asami was incredibly late for her meeting with Korra. Her day was horrendous even by recent standards. But despite showing up over an hour late, the Avatar was in a very good mood.

“What’s got you all excited?” Asami asked, her voice sounding tired even through the mask.

“Oh man, have you listened to the news today?” Korra asked.

“I haven’t really had the time,” Asami said as she set down the large duffle bag she brought with her.

“It was great, I just wish I could have been there. So sometime this morning, the Sato’s private vault was emptied out. Robbed of almost a four million yuans in cash. And then when little prissy Asami Sato calls the police she’s been fighting tooth and nail, the little Equalist princess gets served a summons to appear in court in a week to see if they are bringing charges against her and her father. I wish I could have seen that little bitch’s face. And of course her father is blaming the benders saying that only a metalbender could have gotten into his vault and he demands answers from the police department.”

Asami was frowning heavily under the mask. “Well, I can’t stay. I’ve had a long day.”

She threw the duffle bag at Korra and the heavy bag hit her square in the chest, briefly knocking the wind out of her.

“Wait, Yasuko, come back,” Korra called.

“I’ve got to go,” Asami snapped.

The Avatar dropped the bag and tried to chase after the Equalist, but she had disappeared like she always did.

“Was it something I said?” Korra asked the dark alleyway.

Inside the duffel bag was three and a half million yuans and a note that said, “ _Ty Lee Outfitters in the Fire Nation make the outfits I showed you yesterday, they’re named after some historical 100 Year War figure. The outfits are expensive as hell. Get your measurements and the rest of Team Avatar’s. Get yourself some protection and use the rest of the money for whatever. Yasuko._ ”

Korra was right. Someone did rob the Sato family vault of ten million yuans. They low balled the number to police, not wanting to truly admit how much cash they’d been holding for the Equalists. Among the items stolen were several original designs done by Yasuko Sato, and several miscellaneous items of extreme personal value. And to top it off Asami had been summoned to court, but it didn't happen the way the Avatar told it. Still…

With all of the shit that has been going on in Asami's life; and now stealing from herself, she couldn't handle Korra's remarks. With every good date they had (it was becoming harder and harder to not think of their little meetings as dates) it became harder for Asami to keep the mask on. Then Korra says something like that and all at once she's reminded of why this was such a bad idea.

They didn't get a chance to meet the next day, or the next, but they did see each other across the battlefield. Korra was getting better and better under Asami's secret tutelage. She was able to battle four Equalists at the same time now. And as always Asami was insanely proficient at not being quite where the benders expected her to be. She had almost a skill at getting the benders to aim wide or too high, even for usually accurate benders.

Korra put another ad in the paper three days after the robbery. " _Bending enthusiast humbly thanks and apologizes to Pai Sho partner._ "

She hoped her mysterious Equalist friend got the message. What she did wrong, she had no idea, maybe she didn't even do anything. She half suspected that her mysterious friend was tired and stressed. Plus with the battles heating up Korra suspected she was only getting a few hours of sleep a night, and she didn't seem to be stopping whatever she was doing during the day.

Asami did get the message and despite desperately needing to sleep, her desire to see her crush was more overwhelming.

"Hey, I'm so-" she started when she got to the meeting location. Her apology was only half out of her mouth when she stopped. Korra was sitting on a blanket with a couple of candles and a huge basket of food. "What's this?"

"I pissed you off the other day, and I have no idea why. So if you tell me what I did I promise to try to never do it again. Also I apologize. And I thought you could really use a little oasis of relaxation. So I made a real picnic with all the food I know you like. Here in this... abandoned warehouse," Korra rambled before realizing the location was awful for a date.

Asami smiled and pulled off the mouth covering, leaving her eyes, ears and hair still covered.

"I was just stressed and having a bad day. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. Thank you for this."

She closed the small distance between them and gave Korra a hug. Each of them relished the contact, linger in the touch of the other.

"Anytime," Korra whispered. "And I made sure to get those silly chocolate covered fire flakes you love so much. Only like one store in the entire city sells them."

Asami was speechless. She hadn't had them in years, they were her favorite snack as a kid. "How did you know?"

"You mentioned that you loved them once," Korra said, going back to nervously playing with one of her hair plaits. "I remember you mentioning it briefly, like... four weeks ago."

"Thank you," Asami said, still stunned that Korra actually listened and remembered something so insignificant she mentioned so long ago. Korra actually listened to her. It had been ages since she felt like someone actually listened to her.

They sat down and ate their picnic. Asami went straight for dessert. Korra chatted away about how things were progressing on her end.

The armor should arrive by the end of the week. It was expensive but even still Korra had tons left over. She tried to convince Asami to take it back.

"I don't need it really."

"You broke into the Sato vault and stole like 4 million in cash! That's insane and impressive and you're my hero! Like holy shit woman! You deserve some kind of recognition for your outstanding work."

"Nah, that was the Blue Spirit," Asami said with a wry smile. She taken to wearing the smiling blue demon mask when actively acting against the Equalists.

"Been reading up on my past lives?" Korra nudged her.

"Maybe a little."

"Ok so what should I do with this money? I don't need it, you don't want it."

"Give some to your friends."

"I'll still have like 2 million left. Looks like I'll just give it to charity."

"I've always liked Child's Play. They give games and entertainment to sick kids in hospitals," Asami said absently. "They helped me out a long time ago. Actually they're part of the reason I got into Pai Sho."

"If it's good enough for you, then I think that's worth a couple million," Korra said. "But I still think you need some kind of reward or recognition or something for everything you're doing, all the risks you're taking. You're the bravest, strongest, smartest woman I know. Selfless too. It makes me sad to know all of this good you are doing is so hidden."

Asami blushed. "You know, you care. That's all I really need. Just do me a favor? Remember this conversation when this is over and the dust has settled."

"I don't know if I can wait that long," Korra said as she leaned in.

The Equalist tasted sweet and hot. Korra's lips burned when they broke the kiss, it was that kind of burning that comes with spicy food in that demands you eat more.

"If that's my reward, I'll be just fine."

Korra smiled and blushed. She was tugging at one of her hair plaits again. "You're too kind."

"Have you seen what you did for me tonight? Because you're the nice one."

Korra blushed. "You're just kind of my hero."

"And you're mine."

Asami leaned over and kissed Korra once more.

"I should get going," she sighed heavily. "I've got Equalist meetings to go to in the morning. Oh, and before I forget: we have to clean out one of the Future Industries' warehouses of weapons before the police impound the whole thing. The raid is going to be in two days."

"You know which one?"

"I'll double check and let you know tomorrow night. And Korra," Asami said before kissing the Avatar one last time. "Thank you for all of this. It was exactly what I needed."

"Does this mean we're dating?" called Korra at the retreating Equalist's back.

"Probably," Asami called back. "But I think we'll have to wait and see."

Two days later Asami found herself fighting Bolin, decked out in his brand new armor, in one of the Equalist warehouses. Team Avatar was out in full force. Korra, Mako, Bolin, Tenzin, Beifong, and a whole squad of metalbenders were there. They outnumbered the Equalists by 2 to 1.

Bolin's work with the pro-bending leagues had made him a lot lighter on his feet than Korra ever was. And because she'd spent so much one on one sparring time with the Avatar, Asami was feeling a bit of the pressure when it came to fighting the earthbender.

A whole bunch of chi blockers had already fallen. Done in by the teams in their new armor and close quarters training.

Asami was about to call for a retreat when Bolin got in a very good shot. A large rock collided with her square in the chest. She was knocked to the ground, landing on her back in a puddle of something oily. As much as she didn't like to, Asami was going to have to cheat to avoid getting arrested. Korra had agreed to make sure she would escape if that ever happened, but Asami couldn't afford it to let that happen.

She looked up at Bolin and he slipped on something, perhaps another oil slick or loose pebble, at the same time as Asami threw one of her shock sticks. It flowed with electricity and hit him right in the face.

"Sorry," she whispered as she jumped up off the ground.

It looked like there was only a handful of Equalists left. For the most part they were decent enough people. And Asami had a responsibility to get them out of here, one way or another.

She threw her two gas canisters at the assembled Team Avatar and tried to grab her supposed allies to retreat.

At the same time, several things happened: an Equalist went down as Asami was ushering people out, Korra threw a handful of fire at the downed Equalist in an attempt to get her to surrender, Asami rushed to the Equalist's side. What happened was that Korra's fire hit Asami square in the back.

Under normal conditions it wouldn't have been too much of an issue. She was wearing fire resistant clothing, like all the Equalists were. But her back was absolutely soaked, in what turned out to be flammable liquid. The fire hit and then instantly spread all over, burning with an intense heat that Korra's firebending never had.

Asami's scream of unrelenting pain froze Korra's blood.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliiiiff hanger! Hanging from a cliff!  
> Also Child's Play is a real charity that does exactly what I said it does in the above chapter. It is one of my favorite charities. They give all sorts of games and toys and videogames to kids who are stuck in the hospital. It is just all good all the time. Here's the site for anyone curious: http://childsplaycharity.org/


	6. Hands that Hurt, Hands that Heal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami has been injured, severely. Korra's trying to help, desperately trying to help, but can she find the Equalist traitor in time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: if you are as creeped out/squeamish by third degree burns (OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T GOOGLE SEARCH *vomits*) as I am this is not going to be a fun chapter for you. Ye be warned.  
> Recommended Listening: Take the Weight - Blood Red Shoes

How Asami managed to escape was still something of a mystery. She made all of the escaping Equalists leave her behind. They'd only be slowed down by her presence.

The metalbenders chased after the wounded Equalist but they only found the smoldering remains of the her jacket in an alleyway that ended in a nine foot high concrete wall. They determined that not even they could have gotten out that way if they were burned that badly. It must have been thrown there as a diversionary tactic, and she escaped some other way.

Korra stayed late, like always, to help with the search, but the reasons were different this time. She was deathly afraid that she hurt or maybe even killed her friend, or was she her girlfriend? _Spirits help, there's not going to be a future for us if I can't find her._

That scream haunted Korra’s mind. The vision of the fire spreading over the Equalist’s back was scarred into Korra. She did that. She burned her.

But the search was fruitless. The Equalist for all intents and purposes had vanished off the face of the earth.

Three hours later, Beifong told her metalbenders to check nearby hospitals and if anyone finds the Equalist to call her before they did anything.

Korra had given up, she was exhausted. The fight was hard, but the uniforms worked. She hadn't been chi blocked once, which gave her another horrible stab of guilt.

Spirits, the smell of fire and burned flesh was haunting her. Even here on the boat back to Air Temple Island.

"Korra," came a rough approximation of a human voice. "Korra..."

Adrenaline spiked through her system, banishing any thoughts of tiredness. The boat was small, she'd only taken it because she was too exhausted to waterbend her way there.

 _There!_ In one of the lifeboats. She spotted a pale hand dangling over the side.

Korra sprinted to the hand. She grabbed it and at first it recoiled. "Hey, it's me. It's Korra," she said quietly, trying to sound soothing and keep the unnerving panic out of her voice.

"Korra?" came a wrecked sob.

A green eye from behind a broken Equalist mask lens looked at her. It was red and puffy and there were tears. For a millisecond Korra thought it looked familiar but she dismissed the thought just as quickly.

"It hurts so bad," Asami cried.

"Let me get you out of there," Korra said. She climbed up into the boat, and saw the Equalist lying on her stomach. Her once pale and toned back was now a splotchy white and horrible black charr. It was blistered and bleeding. When Korra saw melted parts of the jacket she had been wearing fused with the skin, she had to choke back a sob.

With great care to not hurt her any more, Korra lifted Asami out of the life raft and set her down on the deck.

"I'm going to go get help, I'll be right back I promise," Korra said, but Asami's death grip on her hand didn't let go. "I'll be right back I promise," Korra whispered again as she pulled out of Asami's grip.

When she was free she sprinted to the bridge. "Get me to the island now!"

"What's wrong Avatar Korra?" the White Lotus member asked.

"Just step on it!" Korra yelled over her shoulder, she was already heading back to Asami, unable to stand being apart from her for even a second.

"Hey, hey I'm back," Korra whispered. Asami's hand desperately sought her own.

"Please don't leave me, please. Don't leave me again," Asami muttered almost incoherently. "Help me Korra. I had no where else to go."

"I'm getting help," Korra said, doing her absolute best to stave off the tears. She did this.

A moment later the boat nudged up to the dock.

"Avatar-" started the White Lotus.

"Go find Kya and bring her to my room. No one else is allowed in. Go! Do it now!" Korra yelled. Then she turned to the injured Equalist. "Hey, do you think you can stand up for me? I need to carry you to my room."

Asami nodded but struggled to move. Every thing she did doubled her pain in her back. She had started to cry all over again, but it felt as if she'd lost all moisture in her body, like it had been forcibly ripped from her.

Korra expertly shifted Asami's frail form into a carry across her shoulders. Then she moved at a steady, even pace as not to disturb the wounded party, but still moved quickly.

At Korra's room she deposited the injured Asami face down on her bed. Once she was safe there, Korra began tearing through her bookshelves. Before she left the South Pole, Katara had given her a general medical care book. She remembered reading a section on treating burns. But she couldn't remember what it said to do. Spirits she was the worst Avatar ever.

A whine from the doorway caused her to turn.

"Hey Naga. Don't worry it'll be fine. Go stand in front of the door and don't let anyone besides Kya or Tenzin in please."

Naga, the greatest polarbear-dog, whined once more before trotting off to do as she was told. Even the massive animal recognized the urgency and pain in the Avatar’s voice.

"Korra," came the broken voice of Asami.

Korra rushed to her side. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done it. Oh spirits, I'm so sorry. I'm getting you help."

"I don't blame you Korra. I just wanted you to know that I really really like you. I think I've fallen for you. Oh spirits, I'm so sorry Korra. Please don't hate me."

"I could never hate you," Korra whispered, tears in her eyes.

"You already do."

Before Korra could respond Kya burst into her room, "Korra it's 2am what the... Oh my, what happened?"

"She's been burned. Badly. Kya help her please."

Kya bent over the still masked Asami, looking not touching. "This doesn't look good. We need to get her somewhere better equipped for this kind of thing."

"I wasn't thinking," Korra muttered.

"You did good honey, first I'm going to need you to help me," Kya said gently. "I'm going to have to take off your mask, ok dear?"

"Please don't," Asami cried. "I don't want to be who I am underneath. It's not who I am. Please."

"Don't worry. No one outside this room will know who you are. You trust Korra don't you?" Kya asked, with the practiced calm of a medical professional.

Asami said nothing, she just continued to cry dryly.

"Tenzin!" Kya shouted. A bald head poked into the room. "Get everybody out of the hallway now. We are going to the healing huts. Make sure no one sees us."

Tenzin said nothing, but once the door was shut his booming voice could be heard.

Kya had been carefully undoing the stitching on Asami's mask. Dark black hair pooled around her burned shoulders. Green eyes looked up at Korra's from behind tears.

Before her lay Asami Sato.

"Korra," Kya's impressive doctor voice cut through the numerous realizations Korra was about to have. "I need you to carry Asami out of here, very gently. Follow me to healing huts. Can you do that?"

Korra nodded as Asami was carefully helped up and wrapped her arms around Korra's neck and her legs around her middle.

She felt Asami crying into her neck, softly muttering "I'm sorry Korra." over and over.

She was carrying Asami Sato. Asami Sato, heir to the Sato fortune and Future Industries. The Equalist traitor. Korra's big old crush. They were the same person, and not four hours ago Korra had given her a third degree burn over her entire back.

Inside the healing hut, Korra laid Asami back down.

"Ok, Asami honey," Kya whispered gently; "I'm going to give you something to put you to sleep. You don't want to feel what is coming next."

Asami just nodded and swallowed the pill that was given to her. In a few seconds she was unconscious.

When that was done Kya grabbed Korra and told her, "I know you care, I know you want to help. But you have to leave for this part. I'll get you as soon as I'm done I promise. But you have to leave."

"No, I can help," she protested. "I'm a healer too."

"I know, I know. But you care too much and this next part is not going to be fun. I have to remove the pieces of fabric from her skin and remove the dead flesh. In most cases it will have to be scrapped off. You don't want to be here for it."

"But-"

"Korra you came to me because I'm the best in the city. Now let me do my job," Kya said firmly. "Tenzin!"

"What can I do?" the bald head asked as he popped in the door.

"Take Korra and keep her occupied for the next hour or two," Kya said. "I'll come talk to you once I'm done and then you can help."

Tenzin leaned into Kya to whisper in her ear, "You sure that's a good idea?"

"If it was Pema what would you tell me to do?"

Tenzin nodded and put his arm around Korra's shoulders. "Come I'll make us some tea. And we can talk."

Korra doesn't remember getting tea from the kitchen or taking it to sit in the garden outside the healing hut.

She doesn't remember Tenzin talking to the White Lotus sentries. What she does remember were the cries of pain from Asami that cut through the walls of the infirmary every so often as Kya removed the melted fabric from her blackened skin. Even unconscious, Asami was crying in pain and Korra’s chest had become completely empty, devoid of organs, there was only guilt in there now.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tenzin asked gently.

"Tenzin I'm a horrible person!" Korra cried.

"You are not a horrible person. I was there, if you don't recall, I saw what happened. It was an accident nothing more."

"Well I am horrible for that too," Korra mumbled. "But all of the things I've said about Asami, said to her! She was laying there in immeasurable pain, that I caused her, and the only thing she can think to say is that she doesn't want me to hate her when I see her face."

"It's hard," Tenzin agreed. "She was the face of an enemy that didn't have a face. You misappropriated your anger towards Amon and his faceless Equalists to the face you could see. It's understandable."

"No! It's horrible! What she must think of me... No wonder she was so concerned about never showing her face before... She thought I'd hate her," Korra hung her head in her hands. "I'm so judgmental. I can't believe it."

"This is part of the maturing process. It was a lesson you needed to learn sooner or later, it is just a shame you had to learn it this way."

"I'm never firebending again," she said firmly. "I won't do it."

He was silent for a moment. "What is this girl to you? Is she someone special?"

Korra nodded. "I think I fell for her a while ago."

Tenzin gave her a sad smile, "You know, something very similar happened to Avatar Aang."

"Really?"

"Yes. He had found a firebending teacher before he had mastered earth. In his eagerness to learn firebending he burned someone very close to him rather badly."

"Who was it?"

"It was my mother. The way my father used to tell it, he severely burned both of her hands. He felt such profound guilt he vowed to never firebend again."

"But he had to. To defeat Ozai."

"Exactly," he said. "And my mother forgave my father. Accidents happen. So long as you never act out in anger, you shouldn't vow to never do something that was accidental. Talk to her when she recovers. That is all the advice I can give you."

"Thanks," she mumbled. "But how am I supposed to forgive myself?"

"That is a question only you can answer."

She nodded dumbly, and the pair lapsed into silence.

A minute or two later Kya emerged from the infirmary.

"Korra?" She waved over the Avatar, who nodded at Tenzin. The two joined the previous Avatar's only daughter. "The burn is pretty extensive. I got out all of the fabric, but it wasn't pretty. I've got her in a healing pool now."

"What is her estimated recovery time?" Korra asked.

"I want to keep her here a week," Kya said, "but..."

"She's due in court tomorrow," Tenzin said. He was part of the council that was hearing testimony. "And we can't excuse her for risk of exposing her. And if she doesn't listen to the summons she'll be arrested."

"This is all my fault," Korra muttered.

"No it's not," Kya said firmly not taking any self-inflicted guilt from the current Avatar. "She might be able to make it if we give her almost continuous healing starting now and going to the last possible second."

"Let's get started," Korra said.

Kya shrugged. There was going to be no dissuading her. "Have someone wake me in two hours. Can you handle two hours?"

Korra nodded.

Inside the healing hut, lay Asami, half submerged in special water designed to help the healing process, Kya had probably made it special to treat burns. Korra reached out with both hands and started to feel the gentle push and pull of the water. Once she settled into the motion she extended her will, her desire to take the pain and make it better.

It was exhausting work, and considering how tired Korra already was she doubted she could actually do two hours of continuous healing. But then she saw the pained expression on Asami’s face start to melt away and that was when she knew that she would push herself to go all night and all day if she had to.

The slightly glowing water was starting to numb the pain, to stitch back together the burned flesh, easing the scar tissue. And Korra pushed herself, dug into wells of energy she didn’t know she had. When those reserves ran out and her muscles started to shake with exhaustion, she continued to do the motions, to heal Asami, with nothing but guilt keeping her standing.

Four hours later, Kya returned to the infirmary, having over slept only to find Korra still healing Asami.

Once Kya took over the healing motions, Korra sunk to the floor, resting her head on the side of the small tank, and whispered, “I’m sorry.” before falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was awoken much too early today, and despite getting everything I had to do done and then some I still had time left over so you got an early chapter.  
> This chapter was a pain to write, but I hope I made it as emotionally exhausting as it was to write... And thus we enter into Act 2, the lowest point of the story.  
> PS I hope everyone's aware that this isn't actually what to do with a burn that bad. Because healing water magic doesn't actually exist. Ok? So I won't mention it. Wait...


	7. Now Testify

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami Sato, Future Industries CEO, has been summoned before the Republic City Council. If this deposition doesn't go well, she will be facing criminal charges and a possible prison sentence. Too bad she was severely injured not even ten hours ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this in less than two hours, and I'm my own editor so any and all mistakes are my fault from rushing to get this done before work. I'll try to fix them if I find them, but I promise nothing.

“State your name for the record please.”

“Asami Sato.”

Spirits, this damn deposition has barely even started and Asami is already hoping that it was over.

“Profession?”

“Future Industries acting CEO.” _And Equalist. And inside informant for Korra. Korra…_

“Are you related to Hiroshi Sato?”

“Yes, he’s my father.” _Spirits this is going to be awful. Was Korra going to be here? She had spent five hours, basically all night healing me… Could she make it?_

Asami’s back twinged with pain and a wave of undirected anger and fear pulsed through her.

_Korra better not show. She’d better show._

“Miss Sato?”

Fuck, she missed something. She was thinking about Korra again and she got distracted.

If Korra did show it would make lying so much more difficult.

_You’ve been lying your whole damn life. This isn’t some board meeting. This isn’t just an Equalist rally you’re lying your way out of. This is survival. You’ll lie to survive. You have to. You’re Asami Sato, lying is surviving._

“Yes? I’m sorry,” Asami said, sitting up straight despite her back crying in protest. “I have lots of very expensive lawyers who charge by the hour, and last night they wanted to milk me for all I was worth before I testify. My apologies.”

“You’re lawyers are betting you’re going to prison,” Tarrlok, the Northern Water Tribe representative smiled a toothy smile.

“Perhaps,” Asami said. _So far so good. They are believing your lies, keep it up. Step one: believe the lie._

“Are you a bender?”

“No.”

_Believe the lie and the lie becomes truth._

“Are you an Equalist?”

Deep breath. “Not to my knowledge.”

_Lie with every breath. Lie with every word. Believe every lie. Leave no truths. Truth is vulnerability. Lies are armor, wrap yourself in enough of them and then can’t see the real you inside, they can’t lock you up in a new prison._

The deposition continued for several hours, and she was exhausted for each minute of it. She felt her concentration slipping several times. Normally she could lie for hours, it was her life after all. But with the constant waves of pain coming off her back, and conflicting thoughts of Korra invading her mind, her concentration was shot.

The Iron Mask of Asami Sato, the character she’d made to defend herself, was slipping. She had to pretend she didn't see Tenzin's concerned looks masked as concentration. She had to pretend she didn't take comfort in having just one ally, one person who was even a little on her side.

Mercifully she reached the end when Tarrlok asked, “You expect us to believe that you had no knowledge of your father’s shell company that was hiding in the company you were CEO of? How can you expect us to believe that you had no knowledge of his illegal activities?”

Asami sighed. “I think you’ve been operating under a false pretense. I wasn’t given the CEO chair because I’m qualified, even though I am very qualified. I was given the position because my father is an idiot. He thought that it would throw suspicion off of him. It was a kind of poorly thought out plausible deniability. But it was also for another reason. It was because I am a woman. If I saved the company it would look like Future Industries is a progressive wonderful company that was truly above suspicion the entire time. If I failed… if the company collapsed… the blame would be at my feet. The board could say everything was better when Hiroshi was involved, damn that stupid woman, all of these faults are her’s, women have no place running a company. That’s what they’d say even though I’ve only had control of the company for less than a year and all of the problems were deeply seeded before I even arrived.”

Tarrlok scoffed, but Tenzin said, “I believe that is all Miss Sato. The Council will now deliberate and we shall let you know when we reach a conclusion.”

Asami nodded and left the room, her back aching painfully. She could feel her heartbeat in the veins all across her back. With each pulse another wave of pain radiated outwards. She had to fight back tears. Asami Sato wouldn’t cry, because Asami Sato wasn’t injured. Asami Sato can’t be injured. But the girl that was behind the veil that was Asami Sato was weeping in pain.

“Send Avatar Korra in please,” Tenzin called to the council assistant. The second she heard that phrase, the pain in her back receded, faded away into the background.

The very tired looking Korra passed Asami. For a single moment they made eye contact, but Asami forced herself to turn away. They were enemies in the public eye, they couldn’t be seen together even a little. Then Asami’s back ached again and she remembered the night before. It made it easier to turn away from the beautiful, concerned Avatar.

“Avatar Korra,” Tarrlok greeted her. “Have you had a chance to review the evidence against Miss Sato?”

Korra nodded sleepily. There were heavy bags under her red eyes.

“And?”

“I don’t think you have enough to bring charges against her,” Korra shrugged. She didn’t really read all of the paperwork. It was so dry and boring. And at this point she really, really wanted to keep Asami out of prison. “Or at least not enough to get a conviction.”

“What?” snapped Tarrlok. “You want to bring her down just as much as I do!”

Tenzin interviened. “I agree with Korra. All of the evidence we’ve been presented with against Miss Sato, as well as her testimony shows that everything we have is circumstantial. If we brought this to trial, we’d lose before we even began. If we are going to do this we have to do it right.”

“All in favor of charging Asami Sato?” Tarrlok said angrily, hoping to quash any more debate before he completely lost his position. His hand shot into the air, and the only one to join him was the other water nation representative.

“All in favor of dropping charges against Miss Sato?” Tenzin asked calmly as he raised a single hand.

The other two council members and Korra all raised their hands.

“Very well,” Tarrlok muttered in defeat. “But I think that while we can’t get the younger Sato, there is more than enough evidence to bring Hiroshi Sato to trial.”

Tenzin was the first one to say “Agreed.” The rest of the council followed shortly.

“Bring Miss Sato back in please,” Tarrlok said.

When the tired and injured Asami entered the chambers Tarrlok informed her that they would not be pressing charges at this time. However, her father was not so lucky.

“Your father has to report to this Council first thing tomorrow morning,” Tarrlok ordered. “Make sure he doesn’t leave the city.”

Asami nodded, indicating that she understood, and turned to leave the courthouse. She knew she shouldn’t but for a second she caught and held Korra’s blue eyed gaze.

And it hurt more than the burn on her back to turn away from the Avatar and pretend there was nothing between them.

The ride back to the Sato Mansion gave Asami some time to breathe. She’d lied her way out of a prison sentence. But her father still had to stand trial, which she knew that most children would be concerned about. Instead she was mildly disappointed.

More than a few of her plans for imploding the Equalist movement had her father in jail by this point. But she had back-ups and contingencies and plan b’s all ready to go just in case Hiroshi dodged jail time. Which, given the army of expensive lawyers he had on retainer, Asami was sure that he would never see the inside of a jail cell.

“Oh my dear, where have you been?” the patriarch asked worriedly when she returned the mansion. Then with more urgency than the question about his daughter’s whereabouts for the last fifteen or so hours, “How was the trial?"

Asami pulled off her jacket. “I got burned real bad last night in the fight.” Surely he must have heard. Someone had to have told him. “I had to get myself to a low rent healer in one of the slums. I barely recovered in enough time to get to my deposition. I managed get out of a full-blown criminal trial.”

“You went to a bender?” Hiroshi demanded. His tone had suddenly turned harsh and angry.

“What would you have me do?” she yelled. “My back had almost literally melted! My jacket had fused to my skin! I was doing whatever I had to to survive! Oh and by the way, the Council is bringing you up on charges, don’t leave the city. Sorry to disappoint, _Father_ ,” the last word left her mouth like an insult.

She stormed out of the room and went to address her wounds. She desperately wanted a shower, but she didn’t think she could handle anything hotter than room temperature. Instead she took some medicine that Kya had given her when she’d woke up and laid in her large four poster bed.

The entire time Asami couldn’t help but think about how her father didn’t give two shits about her well being. He was only concerned with the fact that she saw bender to heal the third degree burn all over her back and not the fact that she very well could have died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original version of this chapter actually sucked. I was editing it and I hated it. It was real boring. So I cut it up, salvaged what could be used, hastily added some new parts and viola: this is the Frankenstein's monster version of this chapter. I think it's better, but at the same time (like the good doctor) I'm just kind of happy it's alive.  
> And it was either this option or you all wait until Wednesday evening, and after all the wonderful comments I got yesterday I felt bad.  
> Maybe I'll come back later and refine this chapter...


	8. Stupid Ass Council Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Councilman Tarrlok has gone too far. Korra is the only one that can stand between him and the innocent people of Republic City. Asami is too injured to help out. Is there anyway out of this mess?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A super early chapter because I have other projects to work on. I'll be finishing up my play at 'film noir' today and possibly writing a new story (I can't help it! My brain demanded I write something slightly less depressing than this) So try to enjoy this kinda lame filler episode. (I'm sorry, it can't be avoided. I'm retelling Book 1, and certain things NEED to happen in order to advance the story)

Apparently unhappy with only landing one of the two Satos for Equalist crimes, Tarrlok had taken to doubling the amount of raids his precious little squad was doing.

With Asami injured, she wasn’t able to “help” with the Equalist nor was she able to leave the house to talk with Korra. She couldn’t help either side with the state she was in. So for a few days the Equalists were seemingly able to handle themselves against Tarrlok’s task force if not against the better trained, and better equipped Team Avatar.

Which only served to make Tarrlok even angrier, or so it seemed to Asami who was only able to glean information from Equalist meetings in the subbasement of the mansion and news reports.

Tarrlok had recently put into effect a curfew for all non-bending citizens. She was pleased to hear the Avatar speaking out against the Councilman’s actions.

“I agree with Councilman Tarrlok that the Equalists are a threat,” Korra said at a press conference two days after Asami’s deposition. “But I think he is going about combating the threat in all the wrong ways. We can’t treat non-bending Republic City citizens as enemies, as potential Equalists. That will only further divide us.”

“Avatar!” a reporter from the front of the crowd yelled. “Does this mean you are condemning Tarrlok’s actions?”

Korra paused for a second. “Yes.”

“Do you plan on taking any action against Councilman Tarrlok?”

“I am currently working with Councilman Tenzin to determine the legality of Tarrlok’s actions,” Korra answered. “Unfortunately we haven’t been able to find anything to say that he’s not allowed to do this. That means I want everyone to just do what the law says, for now. I promise it will only be a short time. Just don’t give him any reason to arrest everyone.”

Korra ended the press conference there. She hated dealing with reporters, she wasn’t used to the spotlight being so directly on her. For a second she thought of Asami and how effortlessly she managed to deal with reporters. She'd handle it with elegance and grace. She'd be perfect at it.

That night, the Avatar dressed up for battle with her friends Mako and Bolin. But they weren’t dressing to fight Equalists, they were preparing to stand up to Tarrlok and his corrupt anti-Equalist task force.

Hopefully it wouldn’t come to blows, but with someone as volatile as Tarrlok it was a possibility.

Team Avatar appeared just as the assembled crowd of non-benders was being told that curfew was beginning and they were to immediately return to their homes.

A large group of citizens were out in the street. Someone had organized a protest, a silent standing of ground after sundown. Because of Tarrlok’s stupid new rules, that alone was illegal.

Korra was pissed, because she had better things to be doing. She had Equalists to fight and she had Asami to talk to, to apologize to. Ugh, but no she had to be here, defending innocents from a power hungry waterbending asshat.

“This is your final warning,” Tarrlok shouted into a speaker. “This has officially become an unsanctioned after hours Equalist rally. Any non-benders on the street in ten minutes will be arrested.”

“Tarrlok!” Korra yelled. She nodded to Mako and Bolin. They split up, the firebender went to talk to the people, the earthbender went to talk to police. “Stop! You can’t do this!”

“The Council says that I can,” Tarrlok responded.

“Then the Council is wrong!” Korra shouted back. “Leave these innocent people alone!”

“These people are Equalists!”

“You know that’s not true! The real Equalists, the real threats are out in our city right now! They are getting away with murder while we sit here and bicker because you’re being such a fucking idiot!”

“You have thirty seconds to disperse!” Tarrlok yelled.

“You guys should go,” Mako said nervously to the crowd. “Korra’s going to try and hold them off, but we don’t want you guys caught in the crossfire. Please, just don’t get in the way. Go home.”

The crowd was giving Mako wary glances. He was a cop after all, but on the other hand he was with the Avatar who was sticking up for them. More than a few were nervously starting to take steps backward. This was getting more dangerous than anyone actually expected.

Meanwhile Bolin was trying to talk the cops down. “Come on you guys, you know this is wrong,” he said. “And do you really want to piss off Beifong? What would she say if she knew you were out here working for this guy?”

More than a few of the metalbenders were not comfortable with this. They were police officers, their job was to protect the innocent, not round them up like animals. This was getting out of hand. But at the same time these were direct orders. Then again there were some cops who saw this as a career advancing move by siding with the ambitious and overzealous waterbender who had all but taken over the Council. If they could get into his good graces by beating up a couple of non-benders then they would beat up more than a few.

“Arrest them!” Tarrlok yelled.

A metalbender shot a claw out and wrapped it around a woman in the crowd. He started to pull her towards the line of police, but Korra threw a fist of water at the cop. When it impacted with his head, Korra froze it which caused the man to drop the woman.

“Bolin!” she yelled as she shifted her stance.

The two earthbent an entire section of the street straight up to give the now panicked crowd enough cover to start getting away.

Team Avatar collected themselves and prepared for the onslaught of metalbending police. They knew it wouldn’t end well for them, but it was the only way to make sure that the crowd had enough time to flee.

The police brought down the wall in a few seconds. The first officer to make a move against the trio was interrupted by Lin Beifong.

He made a move to grab Korra with one of his steel cables, but Lin intercepted it with one of her own. Then she bent the man’s armor so that he viciously punched himself in the head with enough force to knock himself off.

“You are goddamn police officers!” she yelled. “Fucking act like it! While you’ve all been playing grab ass out here with the tactless Councilman, we’ve had seventeen robberies in less than three miles. Equalists have attacked fourteen bending establishments. And we’ve had three murders that need investigating! If you want to stay and work for this asshat I expect your badges on the ground right the hell now!”

Silence greeted her words.

“If you don’t start doing your fucking jobs I will take your bending away by breaking every bone in your ungrateful bodies! Do you fucking understand me?” Beifong yelled with more volume than Tarrlok could have ever managed with his speaker.

“Told you,” Bolin said.

The police immediately left the area to go address the needs of their jobs.

Beifong turned on the fuming Tarrlok. “Just because you’re the head of the Council it doesn’t give you the right nor the ability to command my officers. I looked it up. You understand?”

Tarrlok said nothing, he just turned on his heel and huffed away.

“Holy shit Beifong,” Korra breathed. “Remind me to never piss you off.”

“Don’t you kids have some Equalists to fight,” she muttered. “Or in the Avatar’s case make out with?”

Korra gave Lin a mocking frown as the officer went off to make sure her people were actually doing their jobs.

“It’s ok,” Bolin said with a dopey little grin. “You can go and try to find your Equalist girlfriend.”

“She’s not my…” Korra said before giving up. She was tired of trying to explain that she couldn’t explain what Asami was to her. Especially after all that transpired between them recently. Korra still hasn’t properly apologized. “Whatever.”

So the Avatar rushed off to her usual meeting spot with a slim hope that Asami would show. But considering her injury wasn’t likely. Still Korra waited, desperately hoping that she would and wouldn’t show in equal measure.

They needed to talk, but she shouldn’t be out this late in this much danger with an injury as severe as that.

Part of her wanted to go out and punch some Equalists, but even that had lost the kind of manic fighting joy she’d get from it. She couldn’t stop seeing them as people now, as potential... were they friends? At least Mako and Bolin were out keeping the peace. And Beifong was keeping the police in line.

She waited for four hours, but no Asami.

Instead, Korra just went back to Air Temple Island to sleep.

The next day, she spent most of her time trying to airbend with Tenzin. She still wasn’t quite getting it. They ended the day by meditating, and just as Korra was about to hit that point between ‘I think I’m falling asleep’ and ‘I think this might be working’ when they were interrupted by a White Lotus member.

“Master Tenzin, Avatar Korra,” she said bowing. “Tarrlok just held an emergency Council meeting.”

“What?” Tenzin yelled.

“He held an emergency vote and voted himself total power over the police force,” the White Lotus continued. “He then fired Chief Beifong, and issued an immediate arrest for any and all Equalist sympathizers.”

“What?” Korra yelled. “He can’t do that!”

“He’s issued arrest warrants for your friends Mako and Bolin, as well as Asami Sato, Hiroshi Sato, and most of the senior board members of Future Industries.”

“This is outrageous!” Tenzin said. “This is a clear violation of people’s basic rights. I’m going to the courthouse, I’ll get this whole thing over turned.”

Korra’s hands were clenched into fists, “I’m going to have a talk with Tarrlok.”

The sun was well and truly down by the time Korra made it to Tarrlok’s office.

The power hungry waterbender was sitting behind his impressive desk, behind him a wall dominating waterfall was pumping hundreds of gallons of water into the room.

“Tarrlok,” Korra said from her position by the window. “Let my friends go.”

“No,” he responded flatly as he dismissed his assistant. “Your friends were at the scene of an Equalist rally. They fought on the side of the Equalists. I’m well within my Council given rights to arrest any and all Equalists.”

“They’re not Equalists! You know that!”

“What about the Satos? They’ve defeated us at every turn. We can’t just put them on trial, they’ll beat us with their high priced lawyers and go back to doing what they always did.”

Korra swallowed. Her old hatred for Asami was still fighting against her confusing feelings towards the Equalist traitor. “We can’t just lock people up because we don’t like them,” she said finally.

“I can.”

“You’re wrong.”

“And you’re just a half-baked Avatar,” Tarrlok said as he stood up.

“Release all the people you’ve arrested and step down. Or else.”

“Or else what?”

Korra took half of a step forward and Tarrlok extended a hand. Water from the fountain behind him whipped out and tried to strike Korra. She dodged at the last second, shooting two lengths of fire from her hands.

Tarrlok countered by surrounding himself with a bubble of water.

The fire impacted against the water, causing the room to fill with steam.

Taking the opportunity while the Avatar couldn’t see, Tarrlok started throwing thin pieces of ice at her in a rapid-fire series of attacks.

Korra tried to dodge, but there were too many and she reacted too late. Ice scraped her arms and one got her across the chest.

Instead of dodging the rest, she planted her feet and pulled up a section of the floor to give her cover. Then she stole a move from Bolin and kicked the top half of the concrete slab at Tarrlok.

His only option was the dive out of the way of the hundred pound piece of earth hurtling towards him.

That’s when Korra spun around and pulled out the wall behind the waterfall. Using her earthbending she spun the entire wall and smacked Tarrlok with it.

In one move she cut off his access to water and hit him out of his office and into the Council Chambers.

“Still think I’m half-baked?” Korra mocked from her position on the second floor. As much as she wanted to gloat at Tarrlok up close, she knew that she should never surrender the high ground.

Tarrlok snarled at threw the last of the water he had at Korra, who simply caught it and hit him back with it.

“It’s over,” she said.

“No, it’s not,” Tarrlok said as he extended a hand. This time no water came with it.

Korra instantly felt sick to her stomach. Her skin was crawling and her muscles twitched and contracted without her telling them to. She took a shaky step forward that her mind didn’t tell her leg to take.

She fell off the balcony and hit the ground hard. Her hands wouldn’t obey her thoughts to catch herself.

Bile rose in her throat as some outside force caused her to sit up and face Tarrlok.

“You’re a bloodbender,” she whispered. “But how? It isn’t the full moon.”

“You’ve never faced bending like mine,” Tarrlok snarled. “Now say goodbye to Republic City. You’ll never see it again.”

Korra panicked. Her mind was screaming but her body was not listening to her. She felt darkness crawling over her skin. Her heart was beating furiously, but she couldn’t move, she couldn’t breath, she couldn’t think. And then she fell unconscious.

Several hours later at the Sato mansion, Hiroshi was discussing plans with his daughter.

“We are about to be arrested,” Hiroshi said as a matter-of-factly.

“You’re real optimistic,” Asami replied. Her back still hurt like hell, and she was about to spend time in jail, which was something she’d been trying to avoid.

“I just heard from Amon,” the older Equalist said. “This is actually going to be a very good thing for the movement.”

“How?” Asami asked, as much out of curiosity as need to know the plan so she can foil it later.

“It seems that in Tarrlok’s bending mad quest for power, you know how these benders are, he attacked and kidnapped the Avatar,” Hiroshi said with the same level of excitement usually reserved for children on the birthday.

Asami fought to keep her face neutral despite the internal panic. “Why? What does he have to gain?”

“According to Amon, it isn’t about his gain, but his loss. Tarrlok made the poor move of arresting the Avatar’s friends. When she confronted him, she learned a dangerous secret that if exposed will completely destroy him,” Hiroshi said with glee. “So he kidnapped the Avatar.”

Asami suddenly understood. “And now Amon is going to take them both out. The head of the bending Council and the Avatar all at once.”

“So we’ll suffer in prison for a day or two and when we get out, the bending establishment will be all but destroyed. We enjoy a nice day off as inevitable chaos takes the city, we remain safe and sound. Then we rise out of the ashes of bending tyranny to restore order.”

“When? Where?” Asami asked. She hoped the worry in her voice that she couldn’t keep out sounded like anticipation to her father.

“Tomorrow afternoon,” Hiroshi said, not even noticing Asami’s worrying and frantic planning. “Tarrlok has some small hideaway up in the mountains.”

“I just wish I could be there,” Asami muttered, desperately trying to get an exact location from her father.

“Me too sweetie, but at least we get to be present for the Revelation,” Hiroshi clapped an arm around his daughter’s shoulder causing her to cry out in pain. “Now come on, the police are outside waiting for us.”

Asami swore. She was the only one who knew what was coming, so she was the only one that could stop it. And she was just about to be arrested.

She did have one trick left up her sleeve. But if she used it, everything would come crashing down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't help writing Lin Beifong as this super sarcastic, old troll. I fucking love it. It's so much fun.


	9. Last Minute Gambits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami is in prison, and she's the only one who knows that the Avatar has been taken. She has less than 12 hours to break out of prison, find Korra, and somehow save her while maintaining her secret. It is an impossible task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter that fell victim to the Great Green Editing Monster (in that I was editing the original version, I realized it suuuuuuuucked, and then had to rewrite the whole thing). It's a bit late because writing and also Amazon Prime has Hannibal on Instant so I had to watch that all afternoon.

Asami’s prison cell was about as simple as it could get. Just a six by eight foot metal box, with metal bars and a cot that only vaguely resembled a bed. Nothing even remotely useful for escaping prison.

Amon was going to make a move tomorrow, so she didn’t have much time. The guards had joked about throwing her in a steel prison cell. “An expensive cage for the princess,” they’d said.

Asami just rolled her eyes. There were better, faster, simpler ways out of prison than tearing through solid steel. Probably less painful ways too, but then again, Asami has never actually broken out of prison before.

The way she saw it she had two options: fashion a quick lock pick set, or seduce her way out.

The lock pick set would be her go to option, if she thought she had a couple of hours to pry up a piece of the sheet metal wall, and turn it into a lock pick or some kind of rudimentary key. But she didn’t have that kind of time. Korra didn’t have that kind of time.

She’d have to get a guard to come close and take him out.

It was that or fight her way out, exposing herself, ruining everything forever, and probably not actually making it in time to save Korra.

Asami started constructing the persona she’d need to get the guard to come over. Sexy, demure, innocent, rich girl, wafe, needy, prissy. She already hated the mask before she put it on.

She adjusted her hair so that it partially fell over her face. Her shirt buttons came undone, and she stuck out her chest. Then she rolled up her skirt an inch or two.

It was still late evening, so there weren’t many guards patrolling. Asami waited and watched carefully, she’d need to make sure she had enough time and memorizing the guard rotation would help her get out of here.

After an hour or two, she figured she knew the routine, so she waited.

Once the guard she’d picked out came into view, Asami pouted her lips and moved to the jail bars.

“Hey sweetie?” she asked in a high voice that was not her own. Inside she cringed as she stuck out her chest.

“What is it prisoner?”

“This bed is making my back all sore,” Asami complained, arching her back for emphasis. “Is there something I can do for you so I can get another pillow?”

The guard took a couple of steps forward, but didn’t quite come close enough. “I don’t think so ma’am.”

Asami flipped her hair and looked at the metalbending guard in the eyes. “Nothing at all I can do _to_ you? I can be very appreciative.”

The guard swallowed and licked his lips. Two more steps forward. Almost close enough. “Maybe there is something.”

“Like what?” Asami asked as she batted her eyelashes.

“I can think of a few-,” he started, but he had taken one more step and reached out with a hand, which was all Asami needed.

She reached through the bars, grabbed his hand and yanked him into the bars of the cell. It didn’t knock him out, but it did stun him. Asami took that time to grab his keys and open the lock.

She slid the door open and pulled the guard inside.

He recovered and tried to attack her, but she dodged the blow and expertly got behind him and put him in a sleeper hold.

A few seconds of desperate thrashing, and the guard fell unconscious. She quickly stripped him of his uniform, which was several sizes too big for her, and placed him on her cot.

She dressed in the metalbending uniform and opened her cell. She hadn’t been spotted and the second set of patrols wouldn’t be around this way for another minute. Asami closed the cell and locked it.

As she made her way out of the cell block, she saw an amber eyes man glaring at any passing guard.

“Mako,” she said.

“What do you want? Come to gloat some more? You’re a poor excuse for a police officer,” he snapped.

“I know, I didn’t even get a uniform that fits,” Asami said. She lifted up the visor, “It’s me.”

“Asami Sato?”

“I tied you to your car the first time we met. I’ve been helping out Korra,” she said as she unlocked the cell.

“You’re the traitor?” he asked incredulously.

“Yeah, now shut up,” Asami said. “Korra’s been taken.”

“By Amon?”

“No. By Tarrlok.”

“What?”

“Korra went to confront Tarrlok about throwing us all in prison. Where’s Bolin?” Asami asked.

“Right here,” Mako told her.

“She confronts Tarrlok, who captures her,” Asami said as she unlocked Bolin’s cell. “He moved her out of the city. Where I’m not entirely sure. But Amon is moving on both Tarrlok and Korra sometime today. We need to get to her first.”

“Bolin!” Mako said as he rudely woke up his sleeping brother by punching him on the arm. “We’ve got to go!’

“What’s happening? Five more minutes,” Bolin said as he put the pillow over his head.

“Korra’s been kidnapped,” Asami said.

“I’m up!” Bolin bolted up.

“What’s the plan?” Mako asked.

“You two, find Tenzin, Beifong, whoever you can and go after Tarrlok. If he’s still in the city, find him make him tell you where Korra is. Careful, he took out the Avatar so he’s dangerous. Also keep him safe. The Equalists are going to be moving against him soon.”

“What about you?” Mako asked.

“I’m going to talk to my people and see if they know where she is,” Asami said. “Bottom line: find Korra before Amon does. Whatever it takes.”

“Asami, don’t go after Amon alone,” Mako said. “He’s dangerous. And you’re injured.”

“I don’t care,” Asami said the familiar litany, “I’m expendable.”

“Korra doesn’t think so,” Bolin pointed out, seemingly unphased that Asami was their Equalist contact.

“Just be safe, come find us if you find out where she is,” Mako said.

“I’ll do my best,” Asami said.

The trio split up, Mako and Bolin going to Air Temple Island to get Tenzin, Asami to find some Equalist to beat until they spoke.

The closest one to her current location at police HQ was a small antiques shop.

She knocked on the closed door.

“We’re closed for the evening,” came a voice through the door.

“Mai, can it,” Asami snapped. “I just broke out of prison, now let me in.”

“Password Asami?”

“Come on, you know I don’t know. I was in fucking jail, open the door.”

“It’s platypus-bear for the record,” a tall, bulky woman said as she opened the door. “Nice police uniform.”

“The owner is currently occupying my cell, unconscious,” Asami said as she entered the shop. A few Equalists were longing about the safe house listening to the radio.

It was currently a severe winter storm warning for the western mountains. A blizzard was moving in, but it was expected to blow itself out before any of it could reach the city.

“Any reports on the Avatar being missing?” Mai asked.

The other Equalists shook their heads.

“Where is she? I know Amon is making his move on her today. I want to see it being done,” Asami stated, hoping worry came off as anger or maybe anticipation. If anyone noticed they didn’t say anything.

“We’ve been given strict orders not to attend. Amon handpicked his favorites to go,” Mai whined.

“And?” Asami said. “You have to at least know where it is happening.”

“Sorry, ‘sami. Can’t tell you.”

“I really don’t have time for this,” Asami muttered.

“Relax, the bitch will get what’s coming to her,” Mai said as the other Equalists snickered.

Asami frowned, and let out an unintentional growl. “She certainly will.”

“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Mai asked.

Asami didn’t respond, she just viciously headbutted Mai in the nose. Before the other Equalists could react, Asami vaulted over the low table and put her legs around one’s head. She twisted her whole body and threw the man into a wall full of old clocks.

The only other Equalist tried to hit Asami with a shock stick, but she dodged the blow and grabbed his wrist. She twisted it, snapping the bones, before sweeping one of his legs out from under him, and smashing his head through the table.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Mai asked through her broken and bleeding nose.

“Where’s the Avatar?” Asami asked calmly, as she stepped over the Equalist bodies.

“Fuck you!”

“Mai, don’t make me break you. Just tell me where Korra is.”

“Why so you can save your bitch girlfriend?” Mai shouted.

Asami scowled and kicked Mai right in the knee. There was a sound of bones snapping, breaking as they bent entirely the wrong way.

“I won’t ask again. For every answer you don’t give me that isn’t what I want to know, I’ll snap another bone,” Asami said as she advanced on the woman who was once a few inches taller than her.

“Fu-”

Asami moved like lightning, and in an instant a few more snaps indicated that Mai’s arm was broken.

“Ruskeala! The lower peak! Tarrlok has a cabin there!’

“Right,” she said. The mountain was at least three hours drive from here. A little over two with no regards for speeding laws. She might just make it the same time as Amon. She turned to leave the Equalist safe house.

“We’re going to kill you! There’s no where that’ll be safe for you or your precious Avatar!”

“Bring it on,” Asami challenged. “This war is going to kill me sooner or later, might as well get it over with.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the next episode of The Arts of Lying and Bending: Korra Versus Amon! Will Asami arrive in time? What ever happened to Lin Beifong? Who is the father of Kya's baby? And a special guest appearance by someone's evil twin that everyone thought was dead!  
> (I'm just kidding, only three of these questions are actual things)


	10. Lies Will Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the showdown the entire bending world has been waiting for: in the blue corner, Avatar Korra, master of water, fire, earth! In the red corner: Amon, the Equalist! Two people enter, only one will leave conscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this chapter makes up for the lackluster previous two chapters :/  
> Today's recommended listening: You Bring Me Down by Blood Red Shoes off of their Box of Secrets album (or you can listen to the live version, from 14 Photographs, whichever) [really you should just listen to that entire album, its very good]

Korra had been stuck in her little metal box for almost a day now. It had been a... revealing day. She'd finally had contact with her past life, Avatar Aang. He showed her that Tarrlok was most likely related to Yakone, a notorious underworld gangster who could bloodbend people at anytime. But Aang took his bending away.

So that explained Tarrlok, which was helpful, but it didn't do anything about Amon or even how to get her out of the box.

"Any chance you can teach me how to metalbend?" she asked herself.

There was no response.

"How about telling me how to beat Amon? Any suggestions there?" she asked again.

"I've given you everything that is within my power to help," Aang said.

"How about unlocking the Avatar state?"

"You need to find balance within yourself first."

"Ugh!" Korra cried in frustration. "And to do that I need to get airbending. Which I assume you can’t help me with either?” The vision of Aang shook his head. “Can you at least tell me how do deal with Asami? How'd did you deal with burning Katara?"

The apparition of Aang hung his head. "I was very remorseful. I vowed to never firebend again. It is was one of my greatest mistakes."

"How did she ever forgive you?"

Aang offered a small smile, "I apologized, truly deeply apologized. In time she forgave me."

"It can't be that simple!"

"Sometimes it is just that complicated."

"Ugh!" Korra cried. She was feeling all conflicted inside. She hated what she did to Asami, hated it. She hated herself for it. Then she was still all frustrated from not being able to airbend. Conflicted at not having an answer to Amon that didn't involve just beating the crap out of him, which she suspected wouldn't really, truly solve the Equalist problem. And then there was the box she was locked in. Asami was probably still in prison and injured, both of which seemed to be her fault.

Spirits, Korra was the worst Avatar ever. By her age Aang had already mastered every element and stopped a rampaging industrial country and she couldn't defeat one man without bending! And then she grievously wounds the one person that could help her out, the one person she kind of sort of started to develop fuzzy undefined feelings for.

Worst. Avatar. Ever.

That's when she heard a noise, movement, somewhere outside the metal box someone was moving.

"Tarrlok! You'd better let me out of here!"

She heard someone descending the stairs.

"Tarrlok! Do you hear me?"

The lock on the metal box opened, and the door creaked open. Only instead of the waterbending Council member, there stood the masked face of Amon.

“Unfortunately the Councilman will not be joining us today Avatar,” Amon said in that deep, creepy voice of his. “Well? You wanted a show down.”

Korra stood up and immediately unleashed a torrent of fire upon the figure before her. Amon seemed completely uneffected.

She leapt out of the box and tried to hit him by earthbending a large piece of earth at his head, but Amon had that same annoying habit that Asami had when they fought: he didn’t seem to be quite where she was aiming.

Korra took a large step to the side, and pushed the earth underneath the box towards Amon. If she was lucky she’d trap him in the prison she just escaped from.

She wasn’t that lucky.

Amon dodged the flying metal cage, but only barely. Korra took the opportunity to run up the stairs. The basement was small and cramped and not the best place to fight, especially against someone who relies on close quarters to fight.

But what she found upstairs was a veritable army of chi blockers. There had to be at least twenty.

Korra swore once and then immediately jumped to one side. Amon would be right behind her.

She unleashed a wave of earth that caught some unlucky chi blockers flat footed. She threw rocks at some of the blockers who jumped over the wave, catching two of them in the chest.

Asami had taught her to keep moving, never stay in one place for too long. Korra jumped forward as she threw fire at an Equalist that tried to catch her flank.

The house they were in was being completely wrecked. She’d thrown a few chi blockers through the wooden walls. Parts of the basement were on fire.

She saw snow outside, through parts of the collapsed walls.

Korra reached out, turning the snow into water. She pulled it toward her, whipping an Equalist in the back of the head as she did so. Then she turned around and threw the water at the remaining three Equalist, turning it to ice as it pushed them into the wall.

A dry, leathery noise came from behind her. Amon was standing there, gloves slapping together in a mockery of a clap.

“Very good Avatar,” he said. “How about a real challenge?”

The small, logical part of her brain that told her to _drop everything and RUN!_ was drowned out. She could finish this here and now. _But you’re tired and hungry and fighting just passed the point of exhaustion. It would be no different than fighting Asami. Look at how that turned out last time. But this is different._

Korra took a deep, calming, steadying breath.

Pair of rocks thrown at Amon’s head. Miss.

Move to the side, water whip. Miss.

One-two firebending. Miss. Sweep of fire across the floor. Miss.

Jump back. Earth pillar, try to hit him in the face. Miss.

Amon was fast. Faster than Asami ever was. He was even better about just not being where Korra was aiming. She felt off. Something was wrong with her. Beyond the exhaustion and hunger. She couldn’t place it. It was almost like she was sick, like there was some dark virus in her blood that made her aim off.

Her limbs were starting to feel unnaturally heavy. She was slowing down. Her bending was losing its potency.

“Shame,” Amon said as he walked slowly over to the crumbling Avatar. “I would have thought you’d put up a better fight.”

Korra sunk to the ground. It wasn’t entirely her idea to collapse, but she didn’t have the will to stand up, to run, to fight. It felt like it was taken from her.

“And now to end the Avatar forever,” the head Equalist said as he placed a hand on Korra’s head.

For a second that stretched before her like an ocean of time, she felt everything. She felt the energy inside her self, the spirit of the Avatar, the spirits of all the past Avatars, her bending, the pools of energy that represented fire, water, and earth, and the unused dark pool of airbending. She felt her skin, her cells, her blood, her mind. She felt herself, and she felt Amon. His dark, all encompassing energy that was slowly flowing like a vast unending ocean of black water that was lit by no sun on her inner light. The fires inside her were going out.

“KORRA!” yelled a voice.

Suddenly the darkness was gone.

Amon was lying across the room, partially through the far wall.

Korra’s vision was still spotty with darkness, she felt like she was falling unconscious. A person in a metalbending uniform stood at the entrance to the house.

Asami rushed over to Korra and pulled off her helmet. “Korra! Korra? It’s me. It’s Asami. Are you ok?”

Korra blinked at her perfect rescuer. “Yeah, I think so. Amon’s here. He’ll see you.”

“I don’t give a shit,” Asami said. “I just wanted to make sure you are ok. Can you stand? We need to leave.”

Korra nodded heavily, and tried to stand, but she was too exhausted.

Asami bent down and put Korra’s arm around her shoulders. “Come on, we need to go!”

“Miss Sato,” Amon’s voice said as the head Equalist stood. “Your father is going to be extremely disappointed when he learns I had to kill his only daughter.”

“My father has been disappointed in me for years,” Asami said. “Korra, I’m going to set you down now.” She turned to face the still masked Amon. “He’ll be disappointed in me till the day he dies. And I don’t really give a shit any more.”

Asami always suspected she’d have to fight Amon at some point, she just didn’t expect it to be this soon.

They’d both had extensive Equalist training, so they closed the distance between them quickly.

Asami was fast and agile, but she was still badly injured. And Amon was just as fast.

They punched and kicked and traded blows. Amon managed to dodge or block most of Asami’s attacks, but the girl’s metalbending armor protected her from most of the damage inflicted by Amon.

That was until he managed to land a vicious kick to her midsection that dropped her to the ground. Amon continued to kick her, pushing her outside the broken and burning house.

The wind had picked up, snow was falling rapidly. Even five feet out of the house, Asami couldn’t see the back wall any more. She saw Korra standing up slowly, laboriously. Amon however didn’t notice.

“And now I kill you,” he said. “Then I’ll finish with the Avatar.”

“Not quite yet,” Asami said defiantly. “I still get to cheat.”

“What?” Amon asked.

Korra had managed to get close, before Amon had even noticed her. Asami reached up and grabbed Amon’s legs so he couldn’t get out of the way of the massive surge of water that Korra threw at him.

Amon was thrown almost thirty feet into the coming blizzard.

Asami stood up and caught Korra as she passed out. She carried Korra out into the storm.

If they stayed at the cabin, Amon would return and she would die and Korra would lose her bending. Her damn car had to break down two miles away. If they went out into the storm they’d probably freeze to death.

Asami carried Korra away from the cabin, after several yards they were completely surrounded by blowing white snow, except for the small trickle of blood that came from Asami’s torn open back.

Eventually things started going downhill, as Asami carried the unconscious Avatar down the mountainside, slipping, sliding, and falling sometimes.

“Korra?” Asami kept calling. “I need you to wake up. I can’t do this by myself. Fuck, you’re heavy. Come on. Korra? Please wake up? I don’t think I can save us out here. Come on. Oh fuck.”

At that point, she’d been walking for several minutes downwards. She had no idea where they are or where they were going. Her legs were frozen, her arms were exhausted. She gently set Korra down in the snow and collapsed.

“Sorry Korra.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note 1: I totally forgot to mention that I did some very, very slight editing on Chapters 1 and 8 to start establishing some sequel bait. The total changes amount to like 2 lines, but it is there.  
> Note 2: +5 points to anyone who can find my favorite paragraph in this chapter (it isn't hard)  
> Note 3: I'm taking the weekend off. So I won't update till Sunday night or possibly even Monday.  
> Note 4: I'm aware that the middle of this story (i.e. the chapters around this one) kind of sucks hard, but it will be picking up soon, I promise.


	11. Isolation: Day 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What better way to have Korra and Asami work out their issues, even a little, than strand them on a mountainside in the middle of a blizzard? The first day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The recommended listening for the Isolation series of chapters is: Behind a Wall by Blood Red Shoes

When Asami awoke she was in a rounded cave. Unnaturally round. She was lying on a rough stone bench that was just long and wide enough for a bed.

Her entire body throbbed, but she wasn’t dead and she wasn’t frozen.

The cave was about twelve, thirteen feet across. There was a small pile of earth in the middle of the little hut that held a small stone pot of some sort. It seemed to be radiating heat.

There was another little bed opposite her’s, but it was empty.

A door dominated one side, and it looked just as solid as the walls. Asami even noted there seemed to be a little air vent over the doorway.

Korra must have built this shelter to keep them out of the storm.

Asami barely had enough time to sit up, before the door opened and Korra stepped in from the storm.

“You’re up,” Korra said flatly.

“Yeah,” Asami responded, just as flat.

“The storm is going to keep up,” Korra said as she sat on the opposite side of the room. “I think it will last a couple of days.”

“That bad?”

Korra nodded.

“Sorry about getting us stuck here.”

“It’s not your fault,” Korra responded.

“Are we going to starve or freeze to death?”

Korra shook her head. “I was able to do a little bit of hunting. There’s some turkey-fox in the pot there. I even caught a hare-elk, but I kept it outside. And I have a fire going in a little alcove below us, the heat comes up here but the smoke goes outside so we don’t suffocate.”

“Jeez, you thought of everything.”

“I’m Southern Water Tribe,” Korra said. “If you don’t think my dad spent my entire childhood teaching me how to survive blizzards and ice storms out in the arctic…”

“I’m just glad you’re able to clean up my mess once again,” Asami said, dropping her gaze from the tan survivalist.

“I wouldn’t be able to if it weren’t for you,” Korra said as she stood up. She grabbed the warm pot of slightly stewed meat. “Here, eat.”

Asami took the food and nodded a thanks. The turkey-fox was gamey, tough, and not all that flavorful, but it wasn’t awful.

Korra sat back down on the other side of the shelter. Her throat was dry. It felt like she was trying to swallow an entire cabbage. She knew of all the things that she should say, all the things she should apologize for. But she couldn’t force any of it out. Where would she even start?

“Asami,” Korra said, it was weird to say her name. Her name. Spirits it was beautiful. But awkward. Did someone open a window and let in a bunch of awkward? It was suffocating her.

The dark haired woman looked up to see Korra tugging on her hair plaits. She was nervous about something. Asami realized this was the first time they were face to face since she went to her when she was burned.

“Korra I-”

“I’m so sorry,” Korra interrupted. Asami saw the Avatar’s blue eyes starting to cloud up with tears. “I didn’t mean it and I won’t ever firebend again, but I need to firebend cause I’m the Avatar. But I hate myself for what I did to you. I hate that I caused you so much pain. And I’m sorry. And I can’t believe what an insensitive prick I was. I can’t believe you thought that I’d hate you. I did hate you and I hate myself for being such a judgmental asshole. Spirits I’m sorry Asami. And I really liked you, and you probably hate me and I get it and I’m awful and I’m just the worst Avatar ever. Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t blame you,” Asami said dropping her gaze to her half-eaten meat. “If I did I wouldn’t have come back for you.”

“Still…” Korra muttered. “I hurt you and I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I did it. I never want to hurt you ever. And it was like adding insult to injury using fire against you. I read what happened to your mother. Spirits Asami, I’m so sorry.”

Asami snapped, “It’s fine. Forget it.”

“Sorry,” Korra said again, which made Asami glare at her. “Open mouth insert foot,” Korra muttered as she tried to put her foot in her mouth, but she wasn’t flexible enough.

Asami snorted once, in that “well that was stupid but ever so slightly funny” way.

They lapsed into a tense, awkward silence. Asami slowly at her food and Korra was using a small amount of melted snow to carved intricate designed into the earthen walls.

Asami had noticed the artistry. All along where the domed wall met the flat floor was a repeating pattern: earth symbol, water symbol, fire symbol, air symbol, then there was a little symbol break that she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It looked kind of like a gear, but she couldn’t puzzle out the significance. The pattern continued around the entire enclosure and even went around the door. Now Korra was doing the same pattern, but bigger on the wall behind her bed.

“How long was I out?” Asami asked.

“Couple of hours,” Korra said without turning around. “I think. It’s hard to judge time in a total white-out like this. This was mostly just an exercise to help me get back in touch with my waterbending. Everything’s felt a bit… off since Amon…”

“I know what you mean,” Asami confessed. “My back still hurts.”

She didn’t even notice Korra moving. Just all of a sudden, the Avatar was beside her, hand full of water.

“Did you want me to take a look?” Korra asked. “I thought I got all of it while you were unconscious, but I was tired and I didn’t want to take your clothes off without you being awake and telling me that I could so I tried my best and I can do it again if you want me to.”

Asami just blinked for a second. That was a lot of words all at once. She nodded.

“Do you want me to do it through your shirt?” Korra asked.

For a second the paler woman didn’t move, then she reached down and pulled her shirt up over her head. She kept her arms clutched around her front, but exposed Korra to her scarred and red back that was still scabbing over.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” Korra said. “Just tell me where.”

Asami gently directed Korra to where it hurt the most and after a few minutes Korra just spread the water all over Asami’s burned back and just healed the entire thing.

“Sorry, this would go quicker if I had an actual healing tank,” Korra muttered.

“It’s fine Korra,” Asami responded. “You don’t have to keep apologizing.”

“Yes I do.”

For the what felt like two hours but could have been so much longer, they just sat like that. Korra healing Asami’s back, skin not quite touching skin.

Asami only told Korra she could stop when the Avatar started to yawn loudly, which caused the former Equalist to yawn in response.

“You can stop now,” Asami said. But when Korra didn’t respond, Asami turned her head to see Korra was zoning out badly, she was still putting forth the effort to heal Asami’s back, but she wasn’t focusing on anything else. “Hey, Korra! You can stop.”

“What? Oh,” Korra said, snapping out of her revere.

“How does it look?” Asami asked.

“Better,” Korra answered. “It looks like really bad sunburn now.”

“Thank you,” Asami said as she slipped her shirt back over her head.

“You’re welcome,” Korra muttered as she walked heavily over to the uncomfortable stone bed she’d made.

Asami laid down and when she heard Korra gently snoring, she said aloud, “Korra? I forgive you.”

Then in response she heard, “I don’t forgive me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news: I've finished the story (except the epilogue)! So I have a plan! It is more than 12% of one too!  
> Bad news: I've written so much today (like 5k words in fourish hours) that I accidentally burned myself out!  
> Slightly better news: this short chapter will hopefully mean I can edit Day 2 and get that up relatively quickly, unless I go to sleep/decide to play some Dragon Age.


	12. Isolation: Day 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck in a little, round cave with nothing to do. Asami's back still requires healing, and sleeping on a rock is not even a little comfortable. Healing massage anyone?

Asami woke up, at some point. There was no real way to tell time in the little cave. Korra was gone, but she just assumed that she was hunting or foraging or whatever it is that she does to ensure their survival.

There was only one real problem apart from the whole they might freeze or starve to death: the cave was unnaturally boring.

But the upside, if it could be considered such a thing, is that sleeping on a hard rock slab was incredibly uncomfortable. That meant that Asami was sore and her muscles were tight and sore.

So in order to pass the time she stretched her tired limbs, and tried hard not to build up a sweat. She hadn’t seen a shower in three days or her makeup kit. She must look a disgusting mess. Not to mention how she must smell.

Almost the time that Asami finished her stretches, Korra returned.

She was dressed in the metalbending uniform, which was covered in snow. She trudged over to the small little mound of earth that provided warmth from the underground fire Korra made. She placed the small earthenware pot on top of it before starting to remove the outfit.

“Morning beautiful,” Korra said with a force chipperness.

“You’re back,” Asami responded. “Good.”

“I’m not going to abandon you out here.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Asami said. “Give me your clothes.”

Korra raised a single eyebrow in skepticism. “What for?” she asked slowly.

“I need to use the bathroom.”

“Oh, right. And we only have one pair of clothes that can survive the weather,” Korra said. “Uh, just give me one second.”

“Korra what are-” Asami made to ask, but then Korra disappeared outside again, “you doing?”

She really had to pee and Korra just went back outside.

Here only option was to wait.

A couple minutes later Korra returned, only wearing her shirt and underwear. She wasn’t wearing anything protective.

“What was that?” Asami asked angrily.

“I was drying it off for you,” Korra said between chattering teeth. “I didn’t want to firebend in front of you. Or use up all the oxygen in here.”

“I’m not a scared child or a small animal,” Asami said forcefully, she wanted Korra to hear her point and understand it. “You can firebend in front of me all you want.” But inside she was happy that Korra didn’t.

She put on Korra’s pleasingly warm pants and boots, then put the metalbending uniform over it all.

“Don’t go too far,” Korra warned. “It is easy to get lost. Visibility is down to a couple of feet. Also here.” Asami was handed a fist full of leaves. “It isn’t much nor is it pretty, but it is what I could find.”

“Thanks,” Asami said sarcastically.

“I’ll be near the door if you get lost just shout.”

Asami rolled her eyes at Korra, but was glad that she had a safety net. She knew she should be glad for the help, but so much of their predicament seemed to be her fault, that she was still mad at herself, and she was just taking it out on Korra.

With her business finished Asami trekked back through the storm to where she thought the little cave was, but she walked farther than she remembered walking. Instantly she started to panic.

“Korra?” she yelled.

“Asami!” she heard a response to her left.

“Where are you?” The panic was clear in her voice. Seconds after the question left her lips she saw a massive jet of flame appear several feet to her left. “Korra! Is that you?”

“Yeah!”

“I see you! I’m coming!”

It took Asami a few moments to wade her way through the snow to Korra, but she did it thanks to the Avatar’s firebending.

“Let’s go inside,” Korra shivered.

“Thank you,” Asami said once they returned to the relative warmth of the cave. And she made sure to take a few seconds to admire the view. Korra was dancing around without pants on. The Avatar, despite being shorter than her, had fantastic legs. Calves of spun steel; muscular, thick thighs that Asami was having a difficult time not imaging wrapped around her head.

Asami gave the Avatar her clothes back and sat down. Korra didn’t put on the slightly snow drenched pants or boots, instead set them next to the fireless firepit. She stirred the flavorless stew a bit, the smell of roasting meat filled the air.

“Not quite,” Korra muttered before putting the lid back on it.

“How much longer do you think the storm will last?”

Korra looked up at the ceiling. “It feels like another day. Or I mean another sleep. It is really hard to tell time in here.”

“It’s like being in prison, but without the yard time,” Asami said dryly.

“What would you know of prison?” Korra asked with a smile.

“Hey, I was in prison for a whole day. It really toughens a girl up, I’ve been inside. I won’t ever go back! You’ll never take me alive Avatar!” Asami said, slipping back into their old rhythms for just a second. But then she realized it wasn’t the same, despite it feeling the same. Fucking emotions making everything all complicated.

_Just tell her everything. All of it. Lay it bare._

Korra was looking at Asami with the dopey little grin that Asami wanted so badly to frame and keep forever. Her heart was breaking. Why couldn’t she just let all of this go?

“Korra,” Asami said, her smile dropping from her face. Korra noticed the sudden change in tone. The cave seemed to grow cold. “I’m sorry.”

“For what? You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“I should have been honest with you. I should be honest with you. I just… I can’t.”

“I get why you didn’t before. I was an asshole. What’s stopping you now? You’re big secret is out. What else could you possibly be hiding?” Korra was trying to make it lighthearted but Asami was still hiding too many things.

“I… I don’t know. I just can’t. I bury things,” Asami admitted. She couldn’t look Korra in the eyes. Not in those perfect blue eyes. She’d tell her everything. And she can’t bear being hated anymore than she was at that moment. Korra might not say she hates Asami, but she knows what the Avatar said about her. She knows that will be the default setting for everyone when the find out about her. When they know everything about Asami they always go right to hate. Asami could stomach that from everyone but that tan, blue eyed goddess of a woman. Not her. Anyone else but her. “I can count the number of people on one that I’ve been completely honest with. One of them tolerates me, uses me because I’m his tool, but he hates me. The other one is dead.”

Korra moved and put her arm around Asami’s shoulders. She still wasn’t wearing pants.

“Hey, no matter your secret, I won’t hate you. Not ever. And have I told you that I’m sorry? Because I’m really fucking sorry. Like I’m super surprised you don’t hate me,” Korra said.

“I don’t hate you, because you were right,” Asami said. “You were right about me.”

Korra scoffed. “What? Really? Is that what you think?”

Asami nodded, she was still looking at her hands.

“Do you remember what I said about Equalist traitor you?” Korra asked. “Because I said you were brave, insanely so. You are a certified badass. You are smarter than hell. You are fit as anything. I’m jealous of you and just how willing you are to do what really needs to be done, the lengths you go to to do the right thing is amazing. Now that I know who you are underneath the mask, I just have to amend the list to doubly badass, doubly brave, and prettier than Ginger.”

Korra managed to get a single chuckle out of Asami. “You really think that I’m prettier than Ginger?”

The Avatar looked offended as Asami looked her in the eye for the first time, “That seriously a question? I bet Ginger can’t get herself a glass of water without breaking a nail. Besides I think you have better hair and prettier eyes, not to mention your legs. I can go on all day if you want me to.”

“Don’t,” Asami blushed. “I look like a mess. I haven’t seen a shower in like three days.”

“I stand by my statement,” Korra said. “And I’ll bet you five yuans that you’ll look better tomorrow. And then I’ll be you five more yuans you’ll look better the next day.”

Asami smiled. “You really know how to charm a girl don’t you?”

“It is one of my many skills.”

She leaned into Korra.

“How’s your back feeling?” Korra asked. “Kya wanted you to get a healing session in every day.”

“It still kind of twinges every now and again,” Asami said.

“If you want I can give you a full body healing session slash massage,” Korra offered.

“If you wouldn’t mind. Sleeping on a rock slab isn’t the most comfortable thing.”

“Sorry,” Korra apologized, again. “I made it as soft as I could.”

“Relax Avatar, I’m teasing you,” Asami said as she laid face down on the bed.

“You can leave on or take off as much clothing as you feel comfortable taking off,” Korra told her as she went to the small door to grab some snow to use for the healing.

She was only gone for a moment, and when she returned Asami was topless, laying face down on the stone bed. She’d also lost her pants. The only thing she had on was a relatively revealing pair of underwear.

Korra swallowed hard. Her mouth had gone dry.

_That ass. Dear, sweet, baby Raava. Hot fucking damn that ass. Frame it, sculpt it out of marble, mount it. Now there's an idea... Mounting Asami... NO! Stop it! Stop thinking about it!_

She bent the water around her hands and made sure it was warm enough. She placed her hands on the scarred woman’s back and started to do her work. She healed with the water, and calmed with her strong fingers. Under Korra’s attention Asami started to relax. She deliberately faced away from the Avatar. She didn’t know if she could look Korra in the face in such an intimate setting.

Korra spent what felt like an hour just tending to her back. The scar tissue looked like it was from decades ago instead of days. It still looked painful, but it didn’t look like over cooked red meat anymore.

“Anywhere else?” Korra asked, ignoring the sweat breaking out on her face from exertion.

“That feels great Korra. Just… everywhere if you’re up to it.”

Korra didn’t say anything, she just turned her attentions to Asami’s neck. Her hands making the knots from sleeping badly melt away. Then she moved to the woman’s tone and fit arms, easing away tension and calluses on her hands. She ended with Asami’s legs. It was a constant distraction, attending to those long, perfect legs that ended in an ass that Korra just wanted to sink her teeth into.

The last part of the massage ended hastily. Korra was staring and the more she stared the more she worried she’d do something incredibly stupid.

“There you go,” she said putting Asami’s goddamn perfect leg down. “I’ve got to go stoke the fire.”

That was when Korra realized that she wasn’t wearing pants. _Fuck me_ , she thought, _this was a scene right out of one of Jinora’s smutty romance novels that Tenzin didn’t know she had_.

She threw on her clothes and bolted out of the enclosed space. In fact, she moved so fast that she didn’t realize that she’d put on both pair of pants backwards and forgot the metalbending helmet.

The snow was still falling, but not nearly as bad as it was before. Still it would probably be another couple of hours before they could safely move out of camp. The storm could stick around for a while and there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t get worse still.

Korra took her time outside. She was using the cold to calm her nerves and freeze her desires.

Her feelings towards the now former Equalist had been kind of fuzzy, but now they were definitely in the “ _I want to pin you against the wall with my lips and tongue, make you scream my name, and then cuddle with you afterwards_ ” area. But there was also the wave of unbearable guilt that still plagued her.

She couldn’t handle this insane sexual, romantic attraction to the badass woman who saved her from the fate that had been giving her nightmares for months and the unbridled guilt of her actions. Asami said she forgave Korra, but she didn’t forgive herself. What if Asami didn’t mean it?

Fuck.

If only there was something Korra could do in penance.

She returned to the hut when she couldn’t feel her face any longer.

Asami was sitting on the floor, her clothing returned to her perfect body. She was staring at nothing, lost in thought. Every now and again she scratched something on the floor where she’d made dozens of little marks.

“What are you doing?” Korra asked.

“Plotting,” Asami said simply, continuing to use her thousand yard stare.

“Plotting anything in particular?”

“Our… my next moves,” she said, blinking. She made another series of marks on the floor and looked over the whole thing. She sighed and nodded. “My secret’s out.”

“Sorry about that,” Korra said. “And thank you.”

“You know, if you really want me to forgive you, you’ll stop apologizing,” Asami snapped.

“Sorry,” Korra said before immediately covering her mouth with her hands so she’d stop talking.

Asami flashed a small smile. “Now I’m the sorry one. I shouldn’t have snapped. I’m just feeling cooped up in here.”

“Well if my guess is anything, the storm should blow itself out in a couple of hours.”

“Good. As excited as I am to get out of here,” Asami admitted, “I’m not ready to get back to the city. Everyone will know I’m a traitor now.”

“You can stay with me… us… at Air Temple Island,” Korra offered. “You’ll be safe there.”

“Thanks,” Asami said. “I just didn’t think I’d be outed this early. It kind of ruins my plans.”

“What do you think we should do?”

“Well once we get back,” she took a deep breath. “We’re going to have to take out my father.”

“Are you sure about that?” Korra asked.

The pale woman gestured to the markings. “There’s no other way. We have to cut off the Equalists from Hiroshi and any and all Future Industries technology. They’ve already got a lot of weapons, but we can’t afford to let them get any more. The only way to truly prevent that is to take down my father.”

"But he's your dad."

"He's an asshole," Asami countered instantly. "Do you know what he did when I brought my first boyfriend home? He congratulated me on picking a fine strapping lad and then gave me a handful of condoms. I was fourteen. But when I was fifteen and caught kissing one of my female friends whose mother worked at our company, my father had her entire family deported. Her, her mother, her grandparents, even distant cousins she didn't know she had. He's a dick and it's been a long time coming."

Korra crossed the floor to Asami and put an arm around her.

“Thanks Korra,” Asami said after a long series of silent moments. “I know we left things in kind of an awkward space.”

“What do you mean?”

“The kisses, the promises of relationships, all that jazz,” Asami said. “And at the time I meant every word of it. But now…”

“You don’t want to, I get it,” Korra said. She slowly dropped her arm from Asami’s shoulders. She tried to make it seem slow and controlled instead of recoiling in hurt.

“No… yes… Ugh,” Asami said wringing her hands. “Look I don’t know anymore. Before I had a plan, it was carefully laid out and planned. We were going to take out Amon together. Then… I don’t know. Happiness? But then I actually met you and we started… I don’t know, hanging out? And I fell for you a little bit. Ok, not so little, kind of alot. Then plans changed because I actually wanted to end up with you somehow even if I knew it wasn’t possible because of who I am. Then everything went horribly wrong. You got captured, I got outed, I punched Amon in the face.” Korra wanted to say something, say anything. But she couldn’t think of a single thing to say that wouldn’t make her sound like an insensitive prick. “Now I’m realizing all of the lies I’ve told, that I am telling you, and I know that doesn’t make for a good relationship at all. So… ugh… maybe can we just try to get through this as friends? Then… maybe trying this whole thing again if you don’t end up hating me?” Asami shook out her hands, like she had just burned them. It was a lie, mostly a lie anyways. She didn't want Korra to be a friend. She wanted Korra naked and moaning and all to herself in every conceivable way. She wanted to date the Avatar, she wanted to fuck the Avatar roughly and gently and every way she possibly could. But her instincts told her to run, her instincts told her to lie. So she did, even if she didn't want to.

“I don’t hate you. I don’t think I ever could have hated the real you.”

“You don’t know the real me.”

Korra tried to keep the sigh inside her, but it slipped out. “Well, I’ll be here for you whenever you don’t feel like holding onto the lies anymore. Buddy.”

_Buddy? Really? Who the fuck do you think you are? Is is too late to go outside and freeze to death?_

Surprisingly Asami started giggling. “Thanks, _pal_.”

Korra smacked her head on the ground. “Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Avatar Korra: She Who Continually Puts Her Foot in Her Mouth!”

Asami patted Korra on the back. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Just promise me that whatever secrets you’re holding on to aren’t that you are secretly an Anti-Avatar bent on destruction and starting like a million years of darkness.”

“Nope, don’t think so. I think I would have noticed a billowing cloud of dark evil or something,” Asami joked.

“Oh good. And you’re not some like evil version of the White Lotus that is just bent on anarchy and evil and just general insanity?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” she shrugged noncommittally.

“And you’re not just using me to take over the world in some mad power crazed quest to unite the world under a single banner with superior technology?”

“I considered it, but then I met you and the dream just didn’t seem that important any more. I’d honestly just rather build sato-mobiles.”

“Ok good,” Korra mumbled. “The food should be done. Eat as much as you like. I’m going to get some sleep before the storm ends.”

Asami nodded and Korra stood up. She laid down on her little rock slab and desperately willed herself to sleep. It only sort of worked. Anytime Asami made any kind of audible noise Korra was instantly alerted to it.

She’d finished her share of the food. Korra heard her sitting on the floor, occasionally scratching things into the floor. Eventually Asami gave up and laid down.

Korra had just started to drift off to sleep when she heard Asami get up and cross the room. She stood over Korra and said, “It’s uncomfortable sleeping alone. Can I use you as a pillow?”

The Avatar opened her eyes and when she saw the pleading green ones she knew she couldn’t refuse. She nodded and scooted over.

Asami laid down next to her and rest her head on Korra’s shoulder.

They both fell asleep in moments, little smiles playing on their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mixed messages incoming! It's like trying to interpret semaphores while driving by at 30 miles an hour (or kilometers, I don't judge).  
> [Shameless self promotion below, feel free to ignore]  
> Oh and if any of you are interested in some original fiction that I've written (one of which has several things in common with this story and LoK: reincarnation, badass ladies committing violence!, asshole father figures, ladies that like other ladies) you'll find my writings on teh tumblahs: stalkedbytrains.tumblr.com (as of this moment I have 2 complete books Waiting for Ragnarok and Waiting for Someone Else's Apocalypse [for free!] there and working on a 3rd as well as links to where you can buy my actual print book which has slightly better editing). You know, if that's your thing and my writing has left you wanting any more. But please don't feel obligated.


	13. Isolation: Day 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is time for Korra and Asami to escape their winter prison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another shorty, but it is unfortunately necessary.

Korra woke several hours later. Asami was still nuzzled up against her and for a second Korra was struck by how beautiful she was and her heart threatened to burst. Then she let the feeling wash over her, for one long moment she felt a kind of love for the sleeping girl that infused every cell in her body.

She breathed out, letting the feeling go with it. Asami needed a friend now more than anything. And if it is one thing Korra was amazing at, it was being a friend.

She dare not wake the exhausted woman and instead her eyes fell on the design she'd carved into the wall. All four elements and in the middle separating them, or perhaps joining them, a little gear. Korra had thought of Asami when she put it there. A representation of all the nonbenders in the world. They were a part of the balance. And it was her job as Avatar to keep the balance.

Asami stirred. "Morning," she mumbled and nuzzled further into Korra's neck. She didn't know how much longer she could do the whole friend thing if Asami was going to make a habit of sleeping on her. _Or with her. Stop thinking that!_

"What were you thinking about?"

"I was trying to think about restoring balance," Korra admitted. "A long time ago, during a press conference of yours, you said that you didn't like the Equalist methods but agreed with their ideals. Did you mean it?"

Asami yawned but didn't move. The only thing she was thinking was that Korra was super comfortable. "Yes. Did you know that despite being less than half the population, benders commit almost 80% of the crimes committed in Republic City. This isn't an Equalist propaganda number, that is straight out of the police department."

"That's not good," Korra muttered. “I didn’t know that.”

"I mean benders are powerful people. Waterbenders can control people's blood or freeze the water in their brains. Firebenders can... I mean fire is super destructive. Earthbenders can basically crush anyone they want. Hell even the Airbenders can just rip the air out of people's lungs if they wanted," Asami pointed out. "There's no way a nonbender could do anything that destructive without some incredibly effort or help."

Korra just nodded gently.

"And if you think about it the Council is ridiculous."

"How so? Tenzin does a great job."

"We know that," Asami said finally sitting up. "But look at it from the average nonbender perspective: the air nation has literally four people in it, three of which are children, and they make up one fifth of the Council."

"Holy shit, you're right," the Avatar admitted.

"And not to put too fine a point on it," she continued. "But Tarrlok was a bloodbender born in the Northern Water Tribe. He's not even a Republic City citizen. Why should a noncitizen from a foreign country get a say in our government, and the government of all nonbenders in the city?"

Korra nodded, suddenly she had a lot to think about.

"I just think that reforming the Council will go a long way to healing the bender/nonbender divide."

"You're right," Korra said. "The Council needs to go."

"Hey hey hey, I said reform, not abolish."

"I know, but they have been run into the ground these last few months and that has destroyed public confidence. A new, more equal system will fix that. Maybe some kind of parliament or a mayor or something."

Asami couldn't help but smile. She really did make the right choice in helping Korra. The Avatar really did just want what was best for everyone.

"How did you get so awesome?" Asami asked.

"Years of practice."

"Do you really think you can dissolve the Council? It was started by Aang."

"The Avatar started it and the Avatar is going to finish it. Besides I'm pretty sure the people will like your idea better."

"It's not my idea! I said reform, you're the one calling for revolution!"

"Anyways, did you want any food?"

"No you can finish it. After we survive this I think I'm going to switch to an Air Nomad diet."

"Good luck. I hope you like leechy nuts."

"Ugh. Not really."

Korra ate the last of the stew before heading outside.

The clouds were gone, the sun was breaking over the horizon. The snow was all perfect and undisturbed. The view was breathtaking.

"Asami you've got to see this," Korra called.

The pale woman exited the small enclosure and her breath caught in the chilly early morning air.

"What a view," she said. Korra was frame in the predawn light. She looked heavenly. Her skin glowed like she had been cast in bronze.

"Yeah," Korra breathed. "Ok, let's get prepped to go."

Korra planned on sliding down the mountain. She'd waterbend the entire way down, making it almost a slide. Korra asked Asami if she'd rather be carried, get a ride, or follow.

"Follow? That sounds dangerous. Especially since I can't waterbend."

"Yeah... That ones a bit more risky."

"What is getting a ride?"

"Piggyback."

"That sounds best, I think."

Asami climbed on Korra's back and she asked, "You ready?"

"I was going to ask you that," the Avatar responded.

"You know it is almost a little sad to leave it," Asami responded. "It was our first place together."

Korra swallowed a smartass comment. _Goddamn it Asami. You say you want to be friends and sort out feelings later, fine, but then you say stuff like that and my heart explodes._

"Let's go!"

Ice encased Korra's boots as they became slick almost like a skate. Then she made a trail of ice straight in front of her. Carrying Asami, Korra jumped onto the ice trail and they immediately started making good time down the mountain.

"Hey Korra," Asami said into her ear. "Did it feel weird when you fought Amon. I mean not like a regular kind of weird, like you felt almost sick."

"Yeah, like my whole aim was off. I was off. I didn't like it. What was it?"

"I don't know. What about Tarrlok? He was a bloodbender wasn't he? Did it feel like that at all?"

"Maybe..." Korra mused. "But Amon's was subtle. If it was bloodbending. It almost felt like I was fighting you. You're not a bloodbender are you?"

"No," Asami answered. "I promise!"

"But yeah, it would totally make sense if Amon was a bloodbender. It would explain how he takes bending away, sort of. And how he is so good at fighting, he redirects attacks with his mind!"

"You think he is related to Tarrlok? They can both bloodbend without the full moon."

"Damn it Aang!" Korra cried suddenly. "He was being all cryptic and shit when I asked for help with Amon. ‘I've given you all the help you need’ and crap. It wasn't Tarrlok he was telling me was a bloodbender, it was Amon!" They lapsed into silence. Both of them were trying to figure out how to take out a bloodbender of the highest order. "How do we beat him?"

"We can't just go around telling everyone he's a bloodbender, he can just deny it and we have no way of proving it."

"Fighting him seems doomed to failure."

"Unless we take him by surprise. It's what I did earlier. He can't redirect what he can't see."

The thoughtful silence that came next lasted the rest of the trip down the mountain.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As for the bender/nonbender population numbers/crimes committed numbers, I pulled that straight out of my ass so don't hold me to it.


	14. An Oasis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally a day off. Rest, relaxation, showers (don't think about her naked don't think about her naked), food! All of these things are incredibly necessary, just like the "what exactly are we" relationship question that neither party really wants to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any spelling/grammar errors are my fault because my internet died as I was editing this last night so none of my work got saved (of course), and now I don't really feel like doing it AGAIN so...  
> Recommended listening: Bliss - Muse - Origin of Symmetry

Korra and Asami were intercepted part way down the mountain by Tenzin. He had taken out his glider and was desperately searching the mountainside for the pair.

"Thank goodness," he said when he landed in front of them, pulling each of them into a tight hug. "We feared the worst with the storm and then once we heard there was a bounty on your head Asami."

"For how much?" she asked, instantly curious.

"200,000 alive," Tenzin muttered. _Was this something he should be telling her?_

"And how much dead?"

Tenzin cleared his throat and muttered something that sounded like "500,000."

Asami was shocked. "I'm surprised Hiroshi agreed to that. He's a coward and I never thought he'd pay the bounty for me dead. Huh."

"This is great and all," Korra cut in. "But we need to get back to Air Temple Island. We need showers and real food and a brief meeting to discuss tactics."

"Yes, of course," Tenzin responded. "I'll head down the mountain and meet you with transport."

"See you there."

A little over an hour later the pair had gotten to the base of the mountain to find Tenzin waiting with a car and former-Chief Beifong.

The car ride was mostly just filled with Asami talking out loud while she made drawings on a map. Since she was officially outed as a traitor, her knowledge of Equalist bases, storehouses, factories, and chi blocking training stations had a half-life and three days of it had already gone by.

Lin dropped them off at the harbor and Asami gave her the map. "That's everything I know. You won't have much time to use it."

“And weren’t you fired?” Korra asked.

Beifong snorted. “Yeah, but Tarrlok’s gone missing, Tenzin was too worried about you two dumbasses to reinstate me, so I just went back to work. No one has the balls to tell me otherwise.”

Asami swore she saw Tenzin nod slightly in agreement.

The police officer turned back to Asami, "What do you know about this Revelation?"

She shook her head. "That was strictly need to know. I was important, but not inner circle important. And be careful, Amon is a very powerful bloodbender."

"That's how the Equalists killed my people!" Lin cried in epiphany. "We had to put the blame for the murders of my officers on benders because the coroner said they were killed with bloodbending, and no Equalist would be a bender. But if Amon is a bender, this changes everything!"

"Chief, if you'll excuse us," Korra said. "We have a date win a bathtub and some soap. If any emergencies come up contact us, but I think we've both earned a day off or two."

"You're right," Lin said before starting the engine. "Remember to conserve water by showering together."

Before a red-faced Korra could respond, Lin drove off.

The trio headed to the island.

“Is there anything we absolutely need to discuss?” Korra asked.

Tenzin shook his head.

“Ok, good, I’m going to go get cleaned up,” Korra said. “Asami, I can show you to your room.”

“Is that Korra?!” yelled a voice from the kitchen window.

Within an instant Korra was embraced in a bone crunching hug from Bolin after he sprinted out of the kitchen.

“Oh you’re alive! I’m so happy you’re alive!” he said as he did his best to hug Korra who felt a rib or two pop.

“Not for much longer if you crush me to death,” she forced out of breathless lungs.

“Man! You smell bad!” Bolin commented as he put her down.

“We were stuck in a blizzard for three days!”

“Still!” That was when Bolin turned to Asami. “Miss Sato.” He bowed. “I’m sorry for all the things I said about you and your family. And then accidentally getting you caught on fire. Also, thank you for busting me out of prison.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Asami said.

“Well I’m glad you’re safe,” he said as he hugged Asami, but with not as much force as he hugged Korra. “You two really need a shower.”

“That’s the plan,” Korra said.

“Well, take your time! Once Tenzin told us you were coming back, Pema and I have been working in the kitchen non-stop! We are going to have so much delicious food! But I don’t want to ruin the surprise,” Bolin said before one more hug each and then returning to the kitchen.

“Come on,” Korra said as she reached out for Asami’s hand. “I’ll show you to your room.”

Half of Asami relished the touch, even though she’d ridden the Avatar down a mountain not too much earlier; the other half, however, pulled her hand out of Korra’s terrified of consequences of getting too close.

Korra expertly navigated her way through the compound.

She stopped at a sliding door in the middle of one of the hallways, Asami had already begun mapping the whole compound out in her head.

The door slid open to reveal a small bed, a series of dressers, a miniscule bathroom, a desk and chair, and a window that looked out on the small flower garden.

“It’s wonderful,” Asami said.

“I know it’s probably smaller than what you’re used to at your place. But I promise it is a lot more comfortable than it looks,” Korra responded. “And I can lend you some clothes for you to wear until we can get you some of your own.”

“It’s great Korra, thanks.”

“Now my room, is right here,” Korra continued returning to the hallway. She slid a door on the opposite side of the narrow passageway open to reveal a very similar room, that was the same size but much messier. “Let’s find you something to wear.”

Asami smiled. Clothes were all over the floor, the bed was a mess. On the desk were a smattering of black and white photos. Only two were in frames: one of Korra and who Asami assumed were her parents, and one of Mako, her, and Bolin grinning like idiots. She’d pinned up pictures of a disgruntled looking Tenzin and his family, a couple of the brothers, one of a much smaller looking Naga that was only the size of Korra.

As the Avatar went about looking for something clean to give to Asami, while simultaneously trying to shove dirty clothes out of sight, she absent mindedly pet the small stuffed platypus-bear that sat on top of her pillow.

“Just how many pets do you have?” she asked.

Korra looked up at Asami and then back down to her stuffed animal. “You mean Sir Bartholomew?”

“Yes, _Sir_ Bartholomew.”

“I’ve had him ever since I was a little girl,” Korra said defensively.

“I wasn’t judging. I’ve had a little pink giraffe-pig for years. She’s named Queen Regina the Fifth.”

“Now, that’s adorable.”

Korra started handing Asami pieces of clothing. She got a pair of sweatpants, an oversized shirt, a Fire Ferret official team hoodie, before Korra stopped and started blushing madly.

“What?”

Korra was tugging on one of her hair plaits. “I assume you’re going to want some underwear…”

“That’d be nice,” Asami said. “But I can probably just wash all my clothes at once and go without for an hour or two.”

Korra’s blush was deepening as her mind was only thinking about Asami not wearing underwear.

“I mean… I can lend you some, you’re wearing everything else of mine. And I promise that their clean! I’m a clean girl! Promise! Here you can take these! Their my special date ones that I’ve only worn like once.”

Asami caught the lacey pair of underwear and a huge grin broke out across her face. The urge to embarrass Korra was just too strong, Asami couldn’t let it go. “My my Korra, you never stuck me as a thong kind of girl. Was the date a lucky one? With underwear like this it’d be a shame if you wore them all night.”

It was only as Asami started mocking her that Korra realized what she had done. Mortification spread across her face like a wildfire.

“I… I… uh… You… That… I… Uh…” Korra stammered as she tried to dig her way out of the hole of embarrassment she found herself in.

Asami laughed, “Korra, sweetie, it’s ok. I just spent three days in a tiny cave with you, you dork. I think I’ll be fine. I trust you. Now where do I shower?”

The Avatar was still speechless so she just walked out of her room and led Asami to the small bath house out behind their rooms.

She handed the pale woman a towel and the usual necessities.

Asami thanked her and went to one of the showers where she deposited her things before pulling the curtain closed.

Kora shook herself, trying to dislodge thoughts of Asami.

_Friends, Korra, friends._

_You gave her your fancy date underwear!_

_She’s going to be wearing them all day today._

_Try not to think about it. Especially don’t think about her in the shower, naked, soap clinging to every inch of perfect parian marble skin._

_Too late._

Korra grabbed some soap and a towel and jumped into a shower at the far end of the row of showers.

Her shower was quick and to the point, she didn’t feel much up to standing still for very long. With that accomplished, Korra wrapped a towel around herself. In the corner of the bath house was a large tub. Korra figured that she deserved a long, hot soak in what could be very easily turned into a hot tub with some application of firebending and a little waterbending.

It took almost no effort to get the water nice and deliciously hot. Korra laid her head on the rim of the tub and sighed pleasantly as she soaked. She could feel the knots in her muscles melting away.

Korra had gotten to that perfect moment of pure relaxation where she thought nothing, felt nothing, she just was. She had completely tuned out the world. That was why she didn’t notice Asami climbing into the tub with her until she felt smooth legs touching her own.

“You didn’t tell me there was a hot tub,” Asami muttered as she let out a pleased groan. “Oh spirits this feels amazing.”

The Avatar’s eyes snapped open, startled for a second. But what she saw made her heart beat for an entirely different reason. Asami had her long, dark hair down, it was still damp. She was probably naked under the slightly opaque water. Their legs were touching.

“Sorry,” Korra blushed, trying to hide behind her uncharacteristically down hair, which did all sorts of things to Asami who was not starting to wonder what led her to getting into a bath with Korra because numerous fantasies were playing out in her mind where worry and fear usually resided.

The pair just soaked in silence, blue eyes staring at green eyes across the water.

“You know, even though we were stuck in a tiny cave together for three uninterrupted days,” Asami said, “I’m still not tired of you yet.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“It’s a real compliment. I probably would have strangled anyone else by now.”

“How’s your back doing?”

“Pretty good, still a little sore from the rock bed, but I’m sure it will pass. I don’t even feel the burn anymore.”

“Why don’t you turn around and I can take care of those knots for you,” Korra said, realizing what she was asking after it was already asked. This was just a friendly invitation. Just a friendly, platonic massage while naked together in the bath. Yup, totally platonic.

Korra’s thoughts on chastity were tested when Asami slid in between her legs and turned around. One of her hands rested on Korra’s knee.

She took a deep breath and put her hands on Asami’s back as she let the healing energies start to seep out of her.

Asami moaned. “ _Fuck me_ , Korra. That feels amazing.”

She leaned back into Korra, her head tilted back, almost resting on Korra's shoulder. All thoughts or instincts in Asami’s mind were banished by Korra’s touch.

The Avatar instantly started listing probending teams in her head in a desperate bid to banish the numerous sexual thoughts and fantasies.

_Ba Sing Se Badger Moles, Capital City Catgators, Asami’s naked back, Kolau Komodo Rhinos, Asami’s legs, her arms, her neck, her…_

Any further thoughts of friendliness or chasteness, was banished when Asami turned her head, placed a hand on Korra’s cheek and kissed her.

They kissed a while, Korra’s hands remaining completely frozen on Asami’s scarred back. The Avatar practically jumped out of her skin when Asami’s tongue flicked across her lips.

But before she could respond in any meaningful way, a cough from the doorway interrupted them.

Kya stood there with a smug look on her face. “When you two are done making out we’ve got a veritable feast waiting for you.”

“I… We… You… Uh…” Korra stammered as she blushed uncontrollably. What was it with this day? Was it International Make Korra Blush Day?

Kya laughed as she turned on her heel and walked away.

Korra sighed and slid under the water to hide as Asami stood out of the tub. She was hiding partly out of embarrassment and partly to give Asami some privacy.

When she surfaced Asami was standing in her loaner clothes, hair wrapped up in a towel.

“Hey Korra?” Asami asked her innocently.

“Yeah.”

“Where are your clothes?”

“They’re… Oh damn it,” Korra breathed. In her fluster, she’d completely forgot to bring a change of clothes for herself.

Asami’s eyes seemed to glow with a mischievous glint.

“What?”

The pale woman held up Korra’s towel, just barely out of reach.

“I was wrong about you. You’re evil,” Korra breathed. “Give me back my towel!”

Asami smiled and took a step back. “I think you should come get it.”

“It isn’t wise to mess with a waterbender in a bathroom,” Korra pointed out as she stood up, halfway out of the bath with one arm covering her breasts. But she did give Asami a wonderful view of her sculpted ab muscles and enough imagination fuel to keep Asami's large intellect busy for quite some time.

“Here you go,” Asami said, making a move to give Korra back her towel, but snatching it away at the last second.

Korra tried to grab it, but she missed by a hair.

“It would be a shame if you went from being warm and dry to wet and freezing,” Korra threatened.

Asami just laughed and threw the towel at Korra before turning her back to give Korra some space.

They walked to dinner together, for just a moment forgetting that everything between them was a mess, a quagmire of unspoken, undefined feelings. Asami felt like herself for the first time in decades. She was just Asami, no secrets, no lies, nothing but herself. It was a strange feeling.

Dinner was a family affair. Asami was introduced, formally, to Tenzin and his large family (including Kya), Bolin, Mako, and the pets, Pabu and Naga.

Asami was quiet most of the time, just sitting back to watch contentedly. She’d stuffed herself full of food (thankfully absent of meat) and watched Mako and Korra bicker like an old married couple. She didn’t really pay attention to what it was about, but it was fun to watch. Bolin was pleading for everyone to just get along, and Tenzin was sighing and rolling his eyes.

After the food (and good natured arguing) were finished, Asami made to help clean up but she was intercepted by Kya.

“I need to take a look at your back,” the healer told her.

Asami shrugged, too tired and too content to argue.

Inside the healing hut out back, Asami pulled off the large sweater that smelled of Korra to let Kya look over the faded wound.

“I assume you didn’t take your medicine.”

“I didn’t think to pack it on my way to prison,” Asami responded.

“Still, it looks very good, considering,” Kya muttered, looking over every inch of Asami’s burn. “You might not even see any scarring, if you do it will be very, very light.”

“Small favors.”

“Small my ass,” Kya said. “Korra’s in love with you, you know that right?”

Asami said nothing. Of course she knew, how could she not?

“And I mean like in an ‘if anything happened to you she’d burn this whole city down’ kind of way. Do you?”

There is was the multi-million yuan question.

“I… I… want… I need… It’s hard right now. There’s so much going on.” And there it was. She was no longer just Asami. She was back to being who she was before. That artist with lies and painful half-truths. When pressed even a little bit, she retreated back into her armor of hardened lies.

“Bullshit,” Kya said. “My dad was in the middle of a war that lasted a hundred years and he spent a good amount of time trying to kiss my mom. So your ‘but there’s a war going on’ excuse means nothing to me.”

“I’m not good enough for her.”

“That’s a lie, and I’m pretty sure some part of you knows that. You put her so far ahead of yourself that it is actually kind of insane. Take a deep breath and stop being the Equalist fighting machine that you’ve spent so long being and just be Asami. What does she want?”

“Why do you even care?” Asami snapped. She didn’t really mean to be angry, but this whole being treated like an adult, like a person… it was new and it was different and Asami didn’t know how to react.

“Because I like Korra. And if you break her heart, I want to know before hand so I can get to the minimum safe distance. Trying to calm down Lin after Tenzin broke up with her killed my desire to help people pick up their pieces after break-ups. Also it took months to get Air Temple Island back together.”

Asami said nothing.

“Well, good luck, we’re done here,” Kya said as she put away her medical equipment and left the healing hut.

The sweater smelled of Korra.

Asami left the hut and walked back to her room.

“Asami!” Korra called, looking all happy and excited, her blue eyes lighting up in the darkening winter night. “We’re going to go down to the beach and watch the city lights and a have a fire and make smores! You want to join us?”

She shook her head. “No thanks. Maybe some other time. I’m exhausted.”

Korra nodded and gave Asami a quick hug. “Thank you for saving me.”

Before she could think of a response, Korra bounded off.

Asami lay in the relatively comfortable bed and stared at her ceiling. The only thing she saw was Korra. Damn that beautiful Avatar. Damn her and her perfect abs and selflessness and honesty. She was everything Asami wasn’t and wanted to be.

Her body was exhausted and wanted to be asleep. But her mind was awake with thoughts and possibilities and elaborate plans.

Oh how she wanted to be the person that could love Korra, but that’s not who she was. She wanted to be the person who, at the end of the story, ended up with the Avatar, but there was no way that was going to happen. If she survives the battle, if they win, then Asami is going to jail for a long time. There is no other option. She knew that all of those Equalist jobs she did as a teenager were wrong, illegal, and she did them anyways. She’s done so many bad things in her life, because she was told to. And at the end of the day she was going to have to pay for them.

That didn’t leave a lot of room for loving the Avatar.

Asami sighed and rolled over, but once again, she smelled Korra in her clothing and she couldn’t think of anything besides her.

She heard quiet footsteps creeping down the hallway and the door across the hallway sliding open.

Before she consciously knew what she was doing she stood up and left the room.

“Korra?” she whispered outside the Avatar’s door. “You still up?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah.”

Asami slid open the door and there stood the Avatar, wrapped in darkness and looking godly.

“Look, we never really got a chance to talk about us,” Asami said.

Korra gulped and nodded.

“This is hard for me,” she continued. “I’m a liar and a cheat. I want to be honest with you, but everytime I try every inch of me but one resists. I want to be this better person, the person you see me as. I’ve done terrible things and I will have to pay for them at the end of all this, and I don’t want you to pay for them with me. And it sucks because I-”

Korra interrupted and said, “I get it. We are just friends. Only friends and nothing more. I’ll keep my distance.”

But at the same time Asami said, “I like you so much and want to pin you against the wall and rip off your clothing with my teeth.”

Korra finished before Asami and they both just kind of looked at each with confused expressions.

“What?” they asked at the same time.

“I get it you just want to be friends, but I like you a lot in a more than friendly way,” Korra admitted.

“You jackass,” Asami said with a frown. “I just told you that I want to rip off your clothing with my teeth, and you thought I was doing it in a ‘let’s be friends’ way?”

“You… what?”

Asami closed the distance between them so that her words could be felt on Korra’s lips. “I’m telling you that I want to fuck you till you scream my name. For once in my life I’m trying so damn hard to ignore the possibility of consequences.”

“Uh…” Korra stammered and reached up to grab one of her hair plaits but Asami’s hand intercepted it.

Then some words escaped Asami’s mouth without her meaning to say them, “And if, when this is all over, you won’t mind visiting me in jail…”

“Sure,” Korra whispered as she stood up ever so slightly on her tiptoes to kiss Asami.

“Can we please just fuck each other senseless now?”

“Only if we get to cuddle afterwards,” Korra said.

“That was a foregone conclusion.”

It was only as Korra kissed her with as much passion as she felt that Asami was beginning to suspect how reserved and constrained Korra had been around her. Then she knew exactly how restrained when Korra picked her up, threw Asami on the bed, and then without breaking eye contact with her, ripped off her shirt, exposing her perfectly defined abs through shredded fabric.

“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” Asami said as she pulled off her own clothing.

“I’m just getting started.”

“This is certainly one way to get your underwear back.”

Korra smiled as she slid a hand up Asami’s toned stomach, under her shirt. “I’m just taking my frustrations at you looking so fucking hot after being trapped in a rock cave for three days. You were so fucking hot in there it took everything I had to not kiss my way up your legs when I gave you that massage. And now you’re looking fucking amazing in damn sweatpants! It’s unfair!”

Asami sat up on her elbows, “What are you going to do about it?”

“See how good you look naked,” Korra said as she put forth four months worth of feeling and pining over the former Equalist into a kiss.

The pale woman moaned into the tan woman’s lips. “Oh fuck me Korra.”

“If you insist,” Korra smiled as she ran her hands up Asami’s perfect, smooth legs. “You’ll just have to be quiet.”

Korra’s kisses and light touches and, _fuck_ , her breath were all driving Asami mad. “I don’t… oh shit… I don’t think that’s gonna… oh my!... possible… Fuck Korra! You’re too good at this for me to be anything but loud.”

Korra looked up from in between Asami’s legs and waggled her eyebrows at her. That devilish little half-grin made Asami’s heart turn over. Then Korra stuck out her tongue, and slowly, ever so slowly, licked Asami who whimpered in pleasure and desire.

When Korra took Asami, shaking, quivering, quietly moaning over the edge Asami’s mind was blank with bliss. And then it was Korra’s turn, Asami was surprised to find out that the Avatar was the loud one.

More than a few times Asami had to stop her work to ‘shh’ Korra. But when she returned in between Korra’s legs, the loud moaning only got worse.

Eventually Asami had to abandon use of her tongue on Korra. She resigned to using her fingers so her mouth could keep Korra’s occupied, and quiet. Which as far as she was concerned was the exact opposite of a problem.

When a shuddering Korra came down from her heaven caused by Asami’s fingers, Korra grabbed Asami’s face, looked her deep in the eyes and said, “I love you.”

Asami chalked it up to sex induced endorphins, and said nothing in response as Korra wrapped her strong arms around her. But even as she drifted off to sleep, Asami knew that was a lie. She knew that Korra truly, deeply, unconditionally loved her. She just wanted so damn badly to admit it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah sex, as I've learned from Burn Notice (and once or twice in real life) having sex with someone doesn't resolve any problems or clear the air of questions. In fact it usually makes it worse. Much MUCH worse. >:D  
> Also the return of Troll-face Beifong, my favorite kind of Beifong!  
> If anyone makes fun of twenty somethings for having stuffed animals, I'll fight you. (I have a 7 foot long stuffed squid named Marko)


	15. Try Harder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> International Embarrass the Avatar Day continues! Asami and Korra each get some wise words from Tenzin, and a conversation is had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> +5 points if you can guess which band is today's recommended listening.  
> Try Harder - Blood Red Shoes

The next day, Asami awoke to find Korra’s arms still around her. For a long moment that was the only place she ever wanted to be. She lay there contentedly for a long while, but as much as she liked the feeling, she knew she couldn't stay.

It took some deft maneuvering, but she eventually slipped out of Korra's warm embrace without waking her. She collected her, Korra's, clothes from the floor, quickly redressed and slowly slipped out of the room.

"You don't have to be so quiet," a teenaged girl said from behind Asami who jumped in surprise. "Korra's basically dead  this early in the morning. Nothing short of a typhoon will wake her up."

"Jinora? Right?"

"Yup."

"You won't tell anyone will you?"

"Nope. I don't have to."

Asami's face went pale. "What do you mean?"

"Everyone already knows."

Her jaw fell and all color drained from her face.

“Yeah,” Jinora said as she continued on her way.

Utterly mortified, Asami went to the bath house to clean up, and wash her clothes so she’d have something to wear the next day.

With all that finished it was still late morning, so Asami decided to do some serious thinking and plotting. There was something about Amon and his endgame that didn’t really add up for her.

She found Tenzin wandering the gardens.

“Excuse me, Master Tenzin?” she asked.

“Yes, Miss Sato?” he responded. She noticed he wasn’t looking directly at her. He knew what happened last night.

“Do you have a Pai Sho board around here somewhere that I could use for a couple of hours?”

“Of course, looking for a game?”

“Sort of,” she admitted. “I usually play against myself. It helps me think and plot moves in advance.”

“Would you care for an actual opponent?” Tenzin asked.

Asami shrugged. “Sure.”

She followed the only Airbending master to a small table in the middle of the garden, he told her to sit and wait. In short time he returned with a board, pieces, and a pot of herbal tea.

They set up the board in silence.

“As the guest you may have the first move,” Tenzin said.

Asami thanked him and made her move.

As always, she imagined her little tiles as platoons in her massive army. She was a general and these were her troops. Sacrifice some to take others.

Part of her mind was thinking long term strategies for Pai Sho as she sipped delicious tea, the other, more conscious part of her brain was stuck on Korra.

“I hope you’re not taking it easy on me Miss Sato,” Tenzin spoke for the first time, almost halfway through their game.

“I don’t mean to,” Asami sighed. “I’ve just been distracted lately. And distracted is not a good thing when fighting for your life and the lives of thousands of benders.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Asami lied. Why did she do that? Why does she always do that? It was such a small thing, a simple question. And she did want to talk about it. With someone, anyone. But the first thing out of her mouth, the first reaction she had was to lie about it and clam up. What the fuck is wrong with her? “Sorry. I don’t know why I do that.”

Tenzin nodded, he didn’t push the subject. Instead he went quiet for a moment as he maneuvered a piece on the board.

“Have you ever had a bad habit?” Asami asked. “Like a real bad habit, but one that you’ve been doing all your life?”

“I used to bite my nails. It was horrible, disgusting, sometimes my fingers would bleed.”

“But you knew it was a bad habit. And you fought against it. Then things get hard for even a second and you slip back into it, you start biting your nails, and even as you do it, you’re screaming at yourself to stop.”

“Yes, it is a coping mechanism and a very hard one to break. It takes only days for a new habit to form, but years to break a bad one.”

“I’ve got one of those,” Asami said as she took some of Tenzin’s pieces. “It’s real bad and I do it all the time. And I’m not kidding. I mean I do it almost constantly. I want to stop, but I can’t and it is ruining everything.”

“If it is biting your nails, I suggest replacing it with a new habit, one less destructive. But I think it isn’t as simple as that.”

Asami took a deep breath. “No. It’s not.” They went quiet for a couple of turns. “I lie. Excessively, constantly, about everything. And it’s destroying… things.”

“Korra is a very open and honest young woman,” Tenzin pointed out.

Asami blushed and tried to hide it, but it was obvious.

“I won’t tell you to just let the lies go or to just be honest with her about everything, because that is both an unrealistic expectation and unhelpful. What I would suggest, is that the next time you feel the urge to lie about something small, some tiny, little white lie, don’t listen to your reactions. Take a moment, take a deep breath, let the instant reaction go like a breath on the wind, then answer. It might not be the truth every time or even the first time. But if you stop and think about it, you’ll eventually start with little truths, and once you’ve built yourself a foundation you can start to move up to bigger and bigger truths.”

Asami rubbed the back of her head. “I don’t know Tenzin.”

“You’ve been under a tremendous amount of pressure lately,” he observed. “When was the last time you had time to yourself, to do something you find relaxing?”

“When did I first meet Korra? Three months ago?”

“A bit longer than that.”

“So then like five months ago,” Asami said. “Two months of preparation for meeting the Avatar, then three solid months of living the double life.”

“We have no pressing issues this afternoon,” Tenzin said as he moved a single piece and won the game. “Why don’t you just forget this whole war and take some time to yourself?”

“I don’t know, do you have a sato-mobile, a garage, and a couple of wrenches?”

“I’m sure the White Lotus has something.”

Tenzin led Asami to the small garage on the island, where the White Lotus stored the one and only car that Tenzin had. It was a gift from the Council, but it was hardly ever used since they lived on an island and Tenzin can airbend.

“It isn’t much,” Tenzin said as he opened the door for the young engineer and waved his hand so a gust of air carried out the layers of accumulated dust.

“Oh, this is perfect,” Asami said. “I promise I’ll keep it it in one piece.”

Tenzin offered a wry smile. “What did we talk about the lying?”

“What? I didn’t...”

“Sorry, that was a poor joke,” Tenzin said with his hands up. “I’ll leave you to it.”

Asami cracked her knuckles and started working.

The airbending master shook his head and turned away. He didn’t get far before he ran into Korra. She was sitting on a large rock overlooking Republic City. Her eyes were shut, but she had that slightly pained expression that told him she was attempting to meditate.

“Mind if I join you?” Tenzin asked as he sat on the ground besides Korra.

“Go right ahead,” Korra muttered.

“You sound frustrated.”

“That’d be an understatement.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Do you have a mind reader or a time machine or a How To guide on girls?”

Tenzin couldn’t help but chuckle. “No, I’m afraid the only thing I can do is offer advice.”

“Ugh, can we walk and talk? This rock is hurting my butt.”

“Of course.”

The pair began their walk around the island and for a while Korra was silent. Then she spoke up, “I have no idea what to do.”

“I assume you are refering to Miss Sato.”

“Yeah,” Korra said, she’d started to tug at one of her hair plaits. “With one hand she’s telling me to stay, but with the other one she’s pushing me away. It’s frustrating.”

“You know how stressed you’ve been over fighting the Equalists?” Tenzin asked. When Korra nodded he continued, “Try to imagine that stress doubled, even tripled, every day of your life for almost fifteen years.”

“My head would explode.”

“Exactly. Miss Sato is trying, she’s trying so very hard. But there is just so much on her plate, she’s starting to have trouble keeping it all in check. She doesn’t have a proper outlet or support structure, so unfortunately, she’s taking it out on you, unintentionally.”

“Would it kill her to just be honest with me for like five seconds?” Korra asked in a huff.

Tenzin frowned and slapped Korra’s hand away from her hair.

“What was that for?”

“You were doing your nervous tic,” Tenzin said.

“So? Asami’s got my head, my heart, all twisted in knots. I can’t help it,” Korra immediately started tugging at her hair again.

He slapped her hand away again.

“What the hell!”

“Asami is trying. But there are somethings that require patience, which do I need to remind you is not exactly your forte?”

Korra sighed. “No. What would you suggest I do?”

“Breathing room. Take it one step at a time. Make yourself available, supportive. When she comes to you, be there to give her what she needs. And don’t be mad if she recoils or runs. She needs time to know that you won’t hurt her, and eventually it will all work out.”

“Ugh, but I did hurt her already.”

Tenzin slapped Korra’s hand as she went to nervously tug at her hair.

“Ok stop that!” Korra yelled. “What the hell are you doing?”

Tenzin looked at Korra’s deep blue eyes and said, “Your nervous tic is to play with your hair. Asami’s is to lie or to hide. You can’t just stop doing something like that in one day.”

The anger she felt floated away. “Oh… I get it.”

He smiled. “What would you say to some light airbending training before dinner?”

They went to the spinning gates, one of Korra’s least favorite exercises. Tenzin spun the gates and told Korra to give it a try when she was ready.

For a few seconds she was doing very well. But then halfway through something went wrong and she was knocked out of the ring after a couple dozen hits.

“You have to keep moving, flow, think circle, spiraling movements,” Tenzin said unhelpfully.

Korra rolled her eyes as she tried again with less success.

She tried for almost an hour and was less successful each time.

“Be the leaf,” Tenzin reminded her for the eight millionth time. Korra felt her frustration starting to bubble over.

“Having troubles, Korra?” asked a voice from behind her.

She whipped around and saw the tall, pale object of her affections wiping grease off her hands with a towel.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Asami said. “I had just realized that I hadn’t eaten anything all day. So I was on my way to the kitchen.”

“I can’t seem to get through this obstacle,” Korra mumbled.

“Let me guess,” Asami said to Tenzin, “she tries to brute force her way through it.”

Tenzin laughed and nodded.

“Korra, come here,” Asami said.

“What?” Korra fumed as she stomped over to the other woman.

Asami threw her towel at Korra and then immediately tried to chi block her. Korra reacted instantly as started dodging the blows. She stayed on the balls of her feet and was constantly moving, trying to get distance and space between her and Asami. Exactly how Asami taught her how to all those weeks ago.

“See?” Asami said suddenly stopping. “You move perfectly when I’m trying to hit you. Why is it any different than a spinning door?”

Korra’s blue eyes were narrowed as she silently glared at Asami, but then widen when something clicked in her brain.

“Let’s try it once more Tenzin,” Korra said, her eyes suddenly bright and determined.

Tenzin spun the gates around and Korra took a deep breath, steadied herself, and stepped into the swirling mass of wood.

She spun and moved, dodged and rotated. Before she even knew it she passed through the gates to the otherside.

“I did it! I did it!” she cried out in joy. “Thanks Asam…” But the woman was gone.

“Congratulations Korra!” Tenzin said.

Korra’s smiled faltered for a second. “Thanks, now lets go get something to eat.”

Asami was absent from the family style dinner. Her empty space at the table was like a wound to Korra. A scab that marked what should have been that she couldn’t stop picking at.

Once the food and clean up was done, Korra grabbed a plate, piled it high with desserts and walked towards the garage.

Inside she found Asami sitting on the floor, staring at the sato-mobile’s engine while eating some cold dinner.

“Hey, I brought dessert,” Korra said. “Can I join you?”

Asami looked up and nodded.

After Korra sat on the floor next to her she said, “Thanks for your help with the gates. I never really got it before.”

“You’re welcome,” Asami said almost absently.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Amon,” Asami said, not breaking her staring contest with the metal engine. Then she shook her head. “Sorry. Oh, you brought dessert!”

“Yeah,” Korra sighed. “I didn’t want you to go without some of Pema’s brownies.”

“Thanks, you’re sweet,” Asami said as she turned to face the Avatar. Their eyes held each other’s gaze for a long moment. Asami looked away first. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

“Sorry about what?”

“Going to your room last ni-” Asami started, but then she cut herself off. “No.” She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and remained silent for a second. For that second Korra was lost. What was happening? Was there something she’s supposed to do? “No. I’m sorry for leaving this morning. Ah, that was way more difficult than it should have been.”

“It’s ok. I liked sleeping next to you,” Korra smiled. “I can only imagine how it feels waking up next to you.”

“I like you a lot,” Asami said. Then she shook her hands out like she might have burned them or had a spider-snail on them, before letting out a deep sigh. “Ah, I’m trying really hard here. It’s just so hard to lie to you and not lie at the same time. I feel like I’m being ripped apart and I hate it!”

Korra bumped her shoulder against Asami’s. “It’s ok. I’ll try to be patient with you. But I’m me. I’m kind of a huge hothead. Or at least so I’ve been told.”

“Thank you,” Asami said, finally looking Korra in the eyes again. “It’s just going to be a long time before I think I can give you what you need.”

“I’ll try to wait,” Korra said. “But I’m not great at waiting. Also, ever since last night I’ve been dying to see you naked again.”

"I know the feeling. I just want this stupid Equalist crap to be over. I want to be better."

"One step at a time."

"Thanks Korra."

"Hey you helped me kind of get balanced with my airbending training, I can only return the favor by helping you get balanced with yourself."

"Thank you Korra. Really. Thank you."

"Just let me know if there is anything I can do."

"Can you help me take down my father tomorrow?"

"Is that something you really want to do?"

"Absolutely. And I think it'd be a lot easier if you were there with me."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact! Korra was originally going to break up with Asami in this chapter because she couldn't (or wouldn't) handle the unintentional pseudo-emotional manipulation from Asami. But then Tenzin had to be all wise and shit and that didn't happen.


	16. The Endgame is in Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Avatar Assembles! Korra, the firebending, earthbending, waterbending Avatar: Bringer of Balance; Mako the firebending police officer, dedicated to the law and his friends; Bolin, earthbender extraordinaire, resident goofball and comic relief that can lay the smack down as quick as any joke; Asami, Equalist Traitor, fueled by rage and vengeance with more secrets than a military intelligence agency. If this were a movie, this would be the scene where we see everyone getting dressed up in their ass kicking clothes.

The next day Team Avatar assembled. Korra asked Asami if Bolin and Mako could come with them. After taking a moment to suppress the urge to say no that it should only be the two of them, she agreed. More people would be better.

Asami borrowed one of Korra’s extra anti-chi blocking leather shirts. It wasn’t quite long enough in the arms, and a little too big in the chest, but it would do its job.

The conversation as the four prepped for battle, as it had for the last several weeks, returned to Amon.

“So Asami, what do you think Amon’s Revelation is?” Bolin asked.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out and I can’t,” Asami admitted. “We know two things: he wants to take out the bending government, and the Avatar. Both of them are key to him taking over the city.”

“What about taking out the police? I mean Chief Beifong is no slouch,” Mako said.

Asami didn’t buy it. “But compared to the challenge of The Avatar? It doesn’t really seem to have the same… gravitas. He’s already taken down the bending government, then he takes down-”

“The bendiest bender to ever bend?” Korra interrupted.

Asami’s cheeks immediately flushed.

“What?” Mako asked with a stupid little grin.

“It was something Asami called me once.”

“Say it again,” Bolin asked.

“The bendiest bender to ever bend.”

“Oh my, you two are so adorable!”

“Shut up,” Asami muttered, her face still red.

“So after Amon takes out the bendiest bender,” Mako said without a hint of smile, “then what does he do?”

“I hate you all,” Asami muttered.

“I don’t know,” Korra responded.

“Maybe he takes out Avatar Aang’s statue!” Bolin suggested.

“I do think Amon needs a show of force or power, but that seems beneath him,” Asami said. “He needs to differentiate himself from the other people who have defeated or tried to defeat the Avatar before.”

“Something big, something showy?” Korra asked.

“Probably.”

“What about the bending arena?” Mako asked. “It is a testament to the best of the bending world, in combat, and it is a frivolous sport.”

“How can you call pro-bending frivolous?” Bolin shouted, sounding hurt.

Mako sighed. “You know what I meant.”

“I don’t know you,” Bolin accused.

“Maybe, I don’t know,” Asami said. “I just don’t know.” She hated being looked up to like this, without a mask to hide behind. She hated not having answers. Her whole role in this war was to poke holes in the Equalist battle plans. To show their cards to Korra, but without that she was useless. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”

“You’ve done more than your fair share,” Korra told her and she turned Asami’s chin so that she could see the warmth and thanks in Korra’s blue eyes. “It’s high time we helped you out.”

Asami couldn’t bring herself to tell Korra thank you.

“Let’s not worry about that now, we’ve got to go deal with Hiroshi,” Korra said as they all loaded up on the White Lotus boat to take them to shore.

“Do me a favor everyone?” Asami asked. “When we actually get to the mansion, do whatever it takes to stop my father, but when it comes to actually punching him out, can I do it?”

“Absolutely,” Korra responded instantly.

“Oh, and try not to hurt any of the servants.”

“Anyone else think this is a little weird?” Bolin asked. “I mean, we’ve teamed up with you before Asami, but seeing your face in your butt kicking outfit and then we are actually going to your mansion which we’ve been trying to get into for a while now. It’s a little weird. And now you’re dating Korra.”

“You’re dating Korra?” Mako asked with surprise drawn all over his face like a child with a crayon and a distinct inability to color inside the lines.

“Sort of,” Korra muttered, tugging on one of her hair plaits and looking away.

“No!” Asami said instantly, and then looked angry, mostly at herself. She took a deep breath and shook out her hands. “That’s not what I meant. Ugh. It’s complicated.”

The subject was hastily dropped when from behind Asami, Korra’s ocean blue eyes threatened every part of Mako’s being if he didn’t stop with the questioning.

They were dropped off at shore, and then grabbed a car, that Asami hotwired into starting, despite Mako’s continued protests.

Halfway to the Sato manion a massive shadow covered the afternoon sun.

“What the hell is that?” Korra asked. “Why are the police airships out over the city?”

Mako looked up, “Those aren’t police airships.”

“What?” Asami asked, taking her eyes off the road briefly. “Oh no. My dad completed the Equalist airships. I helped design them. They’re much, much better than the ones the police bought from Cabbage Corp.”

The car crested a hill and all four members of team Avatar looked back at the city. Three Equalist airships were converging over police HQ. At least one of the green airships with the police insignia on it was already going down.

“Where’s that fourth ship going?” Bolin asked.

“It looks like it is going out over the bay,” Korra muttered.

“The airbenders!” Asami yelled. “How better to cement your authority than by riding the world of airbending?!”

“We have to help the police!” Mako cried.

“We have to get to Tenzin!” Korra said at the same time.

Off in the distance they could see a small figure leaping between the Equalist ships as large chunks of metal were ripped off of them.

“Lin’s got the police, we need to save the airbending kids!” Korra shouted, the worry and panic in her voice was plain as day.

“Take the car,” Asami said. “Korra, go save your family. I’m going to stop mine.”

“Asami, no, you can’t do this by yourself,” Korra said, finally tearing her eyes away from the airship approaching Air Temple Island.

“I’ll be fine by myself. It is actually kind of fitting I do this on my own.”

“Bolin. Stay with Asami. Keep each other safe,” Korra ordered. “Mako, you’re with me. You’re driving.”

“Good luck, Korra,” Asami said as she stepped out of the car. “Stay safe. Kick ass.”

The Avatar leaned out of the car and gave Asami a quick kiss goodbye. “Same to you.”

As the car sped away to stop the Equalist invasion of the last of the Air Nation, Bolin bumped his shoulder into Asami’s and said, “Not dating, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this early (even though I promised myself I wouldn't ) because I'm super super anxious to get the NEXT chapter posted [I HAVE A DISEASE! IT'S CALLED CARING TOO MUCH! AND IT'S INCURABLE!]. Because the next chapter is Asami Versus the Equalist Horde (chapter title pending). And I actually kind of like it!


	17. The Raid: Redemption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Round 1: Asami Sato Versus 100 Equalists  
> If she survives she'll get to Round 2: Asami Sato Versus Hiroshi Sato in his prototype Mecha-Tank!  
> (FYI this chapter is violent)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cue up your favorite fight music! Duel of the Fates, Knights of Cydonia, Dream Theater's Panic Attack, whatever. Just get pumped!

Asami knocked on the front door of the place she once spent every night in, but never considered home.

And older man with an impeccable mustache answered the door, “Miss Sato, a pleasure to see you again.”

Asami bowed to the butler. “Arturo, good to see you are well.”

“Is it that time already?” he asked.

“It is. My father is still here?”

“I believe he is coordinating things from the sub-basement.”

“Amon?”

“Not here. I believe it was his intention to take the Air Nomads personally.”

“Thank you very much Arturo. Please, gather the rest of the servants and vacate the mansion.”

“It will be shame to see this place go.”

Asami nodded in recognition of the emotion if not in sympathy. “When everyone is out of the house go find Li and Li law offices, they’ll get you your retirement packages.”

Arturo the butler grabbed Asami’s hand and kissed it before bowing deeply. “Thank you Mistress. And good luck.”

Once the butler was gone, Bolin said as he rubbed his upper lip, “I have some questions. One: how did he get his mustache like that? Two: what was that about?”

“You’ll have to ask him,” Asami said as she led Bolin through the mansion. “And I’ve been planning for this day for a very, very long time. My father never had much mind for the servants, but I did. I respect them, and to a certain extent they trust me.”

“So, uh, what’s the plan?”

Asami stopped a large looking set of wooden doors. She pulled them open to reveal a fairly large and impressive looking workshed. There were lots of things on her mind, she was actively suppressing memories, none of them happy. She was trying to forget the silence that practically painted the walls, the oppressive emptiness. Spirits how she hated this house.

She entered and walked through the workshop until she got to the backwall. A single button was present on the entirely blank wall. She pushed it and the wall slid open, revealing an elevator.

“Take out any Equalists still in the factory. Punch my dad in the face. Find anything about other factories, blow the joint,” Asami said as the pair descended into the manion’s secret sub-basement factory.

“And when you say ‘blow the joint’ you mean leave in an awesome manner like some cool turn of phrase and not blow up explosively. Right?”

Asami said nothing as she elevator came to a shuddering halt.

The doors slid open and Asami stepped out. The noisy factory didn’t even seem to notice. She saw her father at the far end of the relatively open factory floor. He was sitting next to the radio system and looking at the large map of Republic City that dominated the wall with little red Equalist circles and opposing green police symbols on various locations.

The hours she spent down her crafting Equalist hate weapons. It had to total up to weeks, months, possibly even years. She hated every second of it, but she did it. She was a tool used to make other tools. And she couldn’t wait to burn it down.

“FATHER!” Asami yelled, cutting through the din. “I’M HOME.”

Instantly the Equalist workers who were crafting machine parts for gloves and shock sticks stopped working. The loud factory came to silent stand still.

“Bolin?”

“Yeah…”

“Break everything.”

An Equalist ran straight at Asami, shock stick held high, but she just kicked him straight in the face, instantly dropping him to the ground, and shattering the green lensed goggles he wore. Asami had put every ounce of her rage into the blow. The Equalist wasn't getting up anytime soon.

Then, seemingly all at once, every Equalist in the room charge straight for the pair.

Bolin was busy trying to keep the Equalists from grabbing weapons, so he was throwing pieces of the concrete floor at weapons tables and people who picked up weapons.

Asami’s green eyes burned with toxic rage. She attacked anyone who got close to her with everything she had. Hands, feet, elbows, knees.

The first person to get close got his arm broken before she threw him into a work table. She didn’t have time to waste. She went in with intent to cause massive bodily harm. She hated the Equalists. She hated them for what they made her. She hated herself for letting them. And that stopped at that very moment. She was going to break their bodies, like they had broken her all those years ago.

The next got her knee snapped into pieces before Asami punched her out.

Someone got close to her and kicked her into a work table. But that only gave Asami the opportunity to grab two work hammers, one in each hand.

Armed with two building tools, Asami destroyed the Equalist competition. Opponent’s bones meant nothing to her. Knees, wrists, shins, femurs, ribs, skulls. When Asami attacked someone she made sure they wouldn’t be getting up again. She controlled the flow of battle with her weapons. Sometimes she’d fell an opponent with one blow, others would get attacked with a veritable assault that would leave them all but completely broken. Sometimes she’d even use the tines on the back of the hammer head to literally rip through her opponents.

More than a few times, Bolin had no one to fight, so he just looked on it complete awe.

In only fifteen minutes Asami, with some assistance from Bolin, had leveled an entire factory floor of Equalists that numbered well over a hundred people. Although to be completely fair, more than a couple dozen saw the broken, destroyed bodies behind the sweaty, rage-filled, blood-covered Asami and simply ran for it out of one of the secret exits.

“What are you doing Asami?” Hiroshi yelled from the back of the factory. He was climbing into a bipedal, metal lobster looking thing. It looked like a weaponized forklift. “Why do you defend these bending tyrants?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Asami said as she walked towards her father.

“Stop it right now, Izanami!” Hiroshi yelled inadvertently reverting to a nickname bestowed upon his daughter in her youth by her mother. She just stopped. Her mind flashed back to earlier happier times. Asami stopped walking. “You know what we are! We are the agents of change! We have to do these things to bring change to the world! We have to upset the order, bring it crashing down! We bring chaos to the world to restore the natural order!”

Asami dropped the hammers she was holding. She couldn’t move or think or act. The words resounded in her. There was only the words and their command.

“Asami…” Bolin called from some distance behind her.

She just stopped doing anything. She just stood there, as Hiroshi in his mecha-tank advanced on her.

“I see there is no saving you now,” Hiroshi snarled as one of the three pronged claws opened and closed around Asami’s throat. He lifted her up off the ground and she didn’t resist. She couldn’t resist. Asami did nothing as her father, the man she hated so much, threatened to crush the life right out of her, cut off her supply precious life giving oxygen. She remained utterly motionless.

“Asami?” Bolin yelled again.

“Goodbye my daughter.”

“Mister Sato! You are a horrible father!” Bolin yelled as he started throwing huge chunks of earth at the mecha-tank.

As Bolin’s words entered Asami’s ears she snapped out of the hypnotic trance she was trapped in and forced her way out of the tank’s clutches.

The second she hit the floor, Asami reached out with one hand and a large pillar of stone erupted beneath the mecha-tank. The impact was massive and the tank was thrown back a dozen feet.

Bolin looked down at his hands. “Did I do that?”

“You… you…” Hiroshi stuttered.

“Say it.” Asami demanded as she tore off a four foot piece of metal rebar from part of the exposed floor. “Say it!”

She threw the piece of metal like it was a javelin. The piece of metal tore through the mecha-tank’s treads. The gears were destroyed and the tank fell sideways.

“You…” Hiroshi cried as Asami shifted her stance, raised her hands, and then brought them down slowly, sweat breaking out over her face as the earth beneath Hiroshi’s tank slowly enveloped him. “You’re a bender!”

Asami advanced on the tank, shaking with rage and fear in equal amounts. She stood on the exposed cabin of the tank and put her hands on the metal casing. With more effort than she would have thought, Asami ripped open the cabin to face her father.

“I’m an earthbender, a metalbender, I’ve been betraying you and the movement for months now, and I’m dating the Avatar,” Asami snarled at her father, finally admitting everything to her father she’s been too afraid to tell him for years.

“No!” Hiroshi yelled, before Asami punched him in the head and into unconsciousness.

“What was that!” Bolin yelled. “You’re a bender? Why didn’t you tell me? Also, you’re form… is awful.”

“Thanks Bolin,” Asami said as she stood up. “Now help me get these people out of here.”

“Why?” he asked, suddenly incredibly nervous again. Maybe it was the pile of people with broken bones writhing in pain at his feet. Maybe it was because Asami just did some frankly amazing bending and he still couldn't quite wrap his head around Asami Freaking Sato the Equalist Traitor was a bender. Or perhaps it was that super bizarre surrender she had in the middle of the fight. But really it had a lot to do with the fact that she looked super scary in her fighting uniform with no injuries, tears, cuts, or even a hair out of place, but still a little covered in everyone else’s blood and a single tear rolling down her cheek. “Oh no, you really did mean to blow up your house.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter title is an explicit reference to The Raid, two Indonesian martial arts movies that are fucking awesome! If you like super-violent/brutal martial arts movies you should totally watch them. But specifically Asami is being a reference to the Raid 2's Hammer Girl (that's literally her credit role title). You should youtube "Raid 2 Hammer Girl train fight scene" to see what I was going for.  
> But more to the point: this is it, my big plot twist. I've been building to this for 33 thousand words now. Let me know if I pulled off, failed to pull it off, advertised it too much, too little. Is it a bad twist? Is it a good twist? Seriously, let me know. Please? Also +50 points to mangaobsessed18 for calling this twist way the hell back in chapter 7. Go you.  
> And I know people will have lots of questions about Asami's reaction and the only thing about that I can say right now is: SEEEEEQUEL BAAAAAAIIIIIIT


	18. Invasion of Air Temple Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra and Mako arrive at Air Temple Island to defend the last airbenders from Amon, while Asami is fighting her father with Bolin.

“Tenzin!” Korra yelled as she jumped out of the water, followed, much more slowly, by Mako. “Tenzin!”

“What is it Korra?” he called.

“Amon’s coming for you and the kids!” Korra pointed at the approaching airship. “Get everyone on Oogi, and get the hell out of here!”

“What?”

“Amon wants to cement his power by wiping out the Air Nation!” Korra yelled. “Now get going! Mako and I will cover your flank! Just get your family out of here!”

“But-”

“GO!” Korra roared.

The airship was almost upon them.

“White Lotus! Stop those Equalists from setting foot on this island!” Korra yelled.

The Equalist descended like birds of prey from their airship.

Korra and Mako and some of the White Lotus started throwing fistfulls of fire at the anti-bending flies.

Despite their best efforts, Equalists hit the ground and immediately started to engage the earth and water bending Lotus members.

Korra moved like she never had before. She was flowing, gracefully switching between the three elements she could bend. Fire at the airship, earth at the Equalists gang up on a nearby White Lotus, backstep, water at the Equalist that just tried to chi block her, another round of fire at the airship.

She heard the roar of an sky bison taking off and she smiled. Tenzin and his family would get away.

Naga had joined the fight at some point and was growling and throwing Equalists left and right. But despite that, the White Lotus numbers were falling, and the Equalists seemed to have hundreds of people on the ground.

She had to turn her attentions from the airship to simply repelling the Equalists around her, which was getting harder and harder to do.

Mako was right beside her as the Equalists kept coming. No matter how many Equalists they brought down, there seemed to be more.

When the Equalists started to slow down their assault, Korra noticed that the airship was starting to depart. Their enemies were getting back on the ship, because the ship was taking after the airbenders.

She couldn’t be the Avatar that cost the world the Air Nation.

“Amon!” she yelled. “You want me, come and get me!”

For a second it seemed that the ship was just hovering in the air.

“Come on Amon! I’m better now! I’m rested! What are you scared?” she yelled as she threw some fire at the airship.

“Korra, what are you doing?” Mako said.

“I’m not going to let them catch Tenzin,” Korra said. “I’ll keep them occupied. Keep them off them.”

“Then I’m staying to.”

“No,” Korra responded firmly. “I need you to go find Bolin and Asami. Get them and come rescue me later.”

“There might not be a later,” Mako said. “What’s to stop Amon from just taking your bending right here and now?”

“It looks like he’s won,” Korra said. “He’ll want to make a show of it.”

“You can’t know that for sure.”

“Just go,” she pleaded.

“No.”

“Naga!” Korra called. The polarbear-dog bounded over. “Take Mako and go find Bolin.”

Naga whined.

“I’ll be fine girl, just go!”

The Avatar’s spirit animal licked her face once and then grabbed Mako behind the collar and dragged him off the island.

The sea of Equalists parted not too long after Mako was taken away by Naga.

“The spirits gave me the power to take bending away,” Amon said as he walked up to face Korra.

“We both know that’s bullshit, you bloodbending fuck-dick,” Korra said.

“But it isn’t even a full moon, and I’m not a waterbender,” Amon responded in front of his followers.

“Stop lying Yakone Junior, and let’s fight,” Korra said as she jumped into her ready stance.

This time, Korra’s fight against Amon lasted a lot longer. She dodged his attacks much better than she did before. She was well rested and ready. And instead of trying to hit him with specific bending attacks, she went for attacks that covered the whole area. Wide sweeps of fire, that Amon had to jump over or well out of the way to dodge. Turning whole sections of the ground to quicksand. Large tidal waves of water. She was making him work for it.

But just as before, Korra started to slow down. She felt Amon’s dark hold in her blood. That insidious little virus of willpower trying to sap her strength. Korra refused to kneel, to bend. Her own willpower refused. She would not let her own inner light be smothered by Amon.

That alone, however, was not enough.

She was fighting Amon on too many fronts. Internally, externally. It was all too much. She’d lose somewhere.

She lost when a massive explosion lit up the eastern sky as the Sato Mansion exploded in a massive fireball of light and sound.

“Asami!” Korra cried. Worry forced her attentions off of Amon who used the opportunity to knock her to the ground and into unconsciousness.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: THE REVELATION!  
> Dun da dunnnnnn  
> PS Amon really is a fuck-dick, ain't he?


	19. The Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra has been captured by the Equalist Leader Amon, and now her presents to the world his Revelation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been a very long day/day and a half, so any and all editing mistakes are 100% my fault, I was just too lazy and/or tired to hunt them all down.  
> Anywho, and now for the thrilling (I hope) conclusion.

When Korra awoke next she was tied to a pillar in the middle of the pro-bending arena. She felt groggy, tired, not all of her was present.

“Ah, you’re awake Avatar,” Amon said, a smug edge to his voice. “Just in time for the Revelation.”

“What are you doing Amon? How is this going to make anything better?” Korra asked as she strained against her bounds.

“The world has outgrown the Avatar,” he said before turning to the amassed crowd of Equalist, his arms open in welcome to the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Revelation!”

Korra still felt in connection with the elements, so she was right, Amon did want to make a show of it.

“Tonight we witness the end of the Avatar!” The crowd cheered. Korra summoned a little flame at her fingertip in an attempt to burn through the locks that chained her to the pillar. “And the end of the Air Nation!”

“What?” Korra cried desperately pulling at the chains that tied her to the pillar. “No! They got away! They got away!”

A group of Equalists pulled a bound and gagged Tenzin, Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo on stage.

“You touch them and I will bury you Amon!” Korra snarled.

“You talk such a big game Avatar,” Amon said smugly as he bent down so that she could see his cold blue eyes through his mask, “but I’ve already beaten you. I think I’ll make you watch the last of the Air Nation being stripped from this world.”

Korra struggled against her bonds, but nothing worked. She couldn’t get out, she couldn’t save the kids or Tenzin. She had truly lost.

Amon advanced on Tenzin when a large piece of steel came flying out of the crowd on the second level. The projectile hit Amon in shoulder with such force that he was almost knocked off the stage.

From the second level descended Asami, Mako, and Bolin.

Asami had a length of the steel handrail in her hand and she was brandishing it like a spear. Mako and Bolin immediately moved to help the airbenders while Asami faced down Amon.

She didn’t wait for the bloodbending leader of the Equalists to stand up.

Her attacks were quick and ferocious, exactly like lightning. And still Amon managed to regain his footing and dodge each attack.

Asami kept him on his toes by gripping the metal pole and ripping it in half. Suddenly she had two staves instead of one. Amon was fast, but he didn’t predict the sudden change in tactic. He got hit twice with the sticks, before getting back into his dodging rhythm. At random intervals she’d bend the piece of metal back into a single piece or break it in half again, just to keep Amon off his game. Asami attacked so quickly, she didn't leave room for him to counter attack.

He couldn’t openly bloodbend in front of the legion of followers he had in front of them (which Asami was exploiting to her advantage), and everytime he started to slow down Asami’s relentless attacks, that damn firebender would lob a handful of fire that would take his concentration off of Asami who would land another series of blows.

Bolin finally got Tenzin out of his handcuffs.

“Asami duck!” he called.

Without hesitating, she hit the floor as Tenzin blew Amon off the stage with a blast of wind the equivalent strength of a hurricane.

Asami stood up and moved to Korra.

“What the hell happened?” Korra asked.

“Punched my dad in the face, blew up my house,” Asami said. “Now we’re rescuing you.”

“Your girlfriend is a metalbender!” Bolin said.

“Not a very good one,” Asami responded.

“What the hell?” Korra breathed, her mouth still agape with shock. Both at Asami's secret metalbending, and her sudden appearance. "Either way I'm really glad you're not dead."

Asami smiled ever so briefly as she picked the lock on the cuffs.

“Mako, Bolin,” Tenzin said, “I need your help getting my children out of here.”

Korra rubbed her wrists once she was freed from her bonds. “Asami, you want to join me in beating up Amon?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

“Be safe,” Tenzin said as he picked up the still stunned Meelo. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“How do you think we should play this?” Asami asked.

“I don’t think he’ll be able to keep us both occupied at the same time,” Korra said. “So I think we attack at the same time, and attack hard.”

“That’s not gonna be hard.”

“So you’re an earthbender?”

Asami swallowed dryly. “I’d rather not do this now.” She sensed anger in Korra’s voice that wasn’t truly there. She was feeling that nervous apprehension that was compelling her to lie, to deny the whole thing, but she swallowed it. She couldn't look Korra in the eye, partly in fear, partly in shame.

“When we finish this whole thing, we need to have a long discussion,” Korra said.

“You’re mad, I get it.”

“Of course I’m mad! You were cheating the whole time we were sparring together! You had secret earthbending moves that you were probably using against me! That’s cheating!” Korra said with that dorky little half smile. “But I’m not mad you hid it or anything.”

“You’re so strange,” Asami muttered as they entered the back-stage portions of the arena.

“Where oh where is Amon?” Korra asked.

They entered the training area. Nets and weights and kegs of water lay scattered around. The pair entered the room and carefully looked around.

Asami looked under a pile of construction equipment. She moved a large pallet of wood and stood face to face with the Equalist mask of Amon.

“Kor-” she started to yell, but Amon picked her up with his bloodbending and threw her into the far wall.

The Avatar turned and tried to unleash all of her fire on the bloodbender, but her muscles seized and twisted and her fire went out.

Korra was forced to kneel as her arms bent in uncomfortable directions, her muscles spasming painfully as they tried to fight against Amon’s dark influence.

A large section of the earthen wall was ripped off and thrown at Amon, who simply sidestepped it. Asami tried to charge at Amon, but he extended his other hand and she suddenly stopped moving.

“Which of you to destroy first?” Amon asked turning his gaze from one captive to the other. “The Avatar thorn in my side? Or the traitor who was a secret bender?” He clenched his fists and both girls cried out in pain. “I think I’ll rob the Avatar of her bending first, since she seems to value it so much more.”

“You touch her and I’ll rip out your fucking lungs with my bare hands,” Asami menaced as she pushed against Amon’s grip with everything she had.

Amon just chuckled as he advanced on Korra. Asami took one step forward, it was like she was carrying seven tons of platinum on her back. She could move, but it was so agonizingly slow. Her own body was trying to stop her. Each step was like wading through tar. But she had to stop Amon from taking Korra's bending.

Korra was speechless, wide eyes in terror as Amon raised his hand. Even from ten feet away Asami could hear Korra's panicked hyperventilating. The Avatar was desperately trying to move, but Amon was focusing most of his attention on Korra, keeping her perfectly still.

Asami was too far away. So she did the tiny little move she did a hundred times before when fighting benders. She moved the earth beneath Amon’s feet with a subtle little flick of her hand. It wasn’t much, just enough so that his attempt at removing Korra’s bending went wide.

She chuckled. Then taking advantage of the brief moment of clarity she pushed forward another couple of steps.

“SIT DOWN!” Amon commanded as he pointed a hand at her.

Asami’s legs twitched and clenched as she descended to her knees. She fought with every inch of her, but she couldn’t win. She was sweating profusely with the effort. Amon was going to win unless she did something.

She put forth all her effort into moving her hand, with her hand maybe she could do something. But Amon noticed the effort.

“I think not Miss Sato,” he said as he extended his hand and twisted.

The muscles in Asami’s arm moved violently of their own accord, attacking the bones beneath them. Asami’s mind lost all thought of fighting, or trying, as the pain in her arm exploded from the bones snapping to the muscles over-exerting themselves to the blood inside her carrying Amon’s influence throughout her body.

Her scream of pain was dwarfed by the negative sound of Korra’s bending being taken away. The most heartbreaking silence filled the room and infused every ounce of Asami's being with a terrible sadness.

Amon dropped his hand from Korra’s head and the Avatar fell to the ground like a sack of bricks. The light in her eyes going out.

“No,” Asami cried, her own pain forgotten, jaw clenched in more than one type of pain.

“And now to kill the traitor in my midst,” Amon said. He was standing so much taller it seemed, like defeating the Avatar had given him stature and poise. “You hid so carefully from me. You might have even succeeded had your weakness for the Avatar not overcome your better judgement.”

Asami’s fury filled her, and temporarily gave her the strength to move under Amon’s control. With her one functioning hand, she summoned a sharp pillar of earth. She pushed the knife sharp chunk of rock through Amon’s chest. She was aiming for his heart, but she missed. The rock only managed to stab through his shoulder. It wasn’t even that deep of a wound. She promised to rip out his lungs, and Asami had every intention of following through with that.

Amon growled in pain and displeasure. “It has been some time since I’ve killed anyone with my own hands.”

He pulled the rock out of his shoulder as Asami’s other arm snapped with a sickening crunch in the middle of her trying to swallow Amon with the ground beneath his feet.

“I’m sorry Korra,” she whispered as Amon stood behind her, tears filling her eyes.

He took a deep breath, and put his hands on either side of her head.

“And the irony will be that breaking your neck requires less effort on my part than breaking both your arms.”

“No!” screamed Korra with one hand extended. She couldn't save herself, but maybe, just maybe she could save Asami.

A sudden gust of wind smacked into Amon’s back and flung him across the room.

Asami collapsed to the ground as Korra rushed to her side.

From the other side of the room, Amon stood up with a snarl. He extended his hand to force his will on Korra.

“No,” she said through clenched teeth. Her anger, her willfulness, resisted Amon’s influence. She wouldn’t let him hurt Asami anymore. “Not today!”

She managed to extend a leg and felt a rush of unbridled force leave her body as another gust of wind impacted with the Equalist leader.

Korra gingerly picked up Asami and told her, “We’re getting out of here.”

Asami offered a weak smile. “At least you can airbend now.”

The Avatar didn’t have time to comment as she took the woman and ran out of the room. She had to get away from Amon before he could kill Asami. She didn’t even make it out of the hallway when her legs stopped obeying her.

“Come here Avatar!” Amon menaced.

“No!” Korra yelled as she pushed back against Amon’s will.

Another torrent of wind rushed through the hallway. Amon tried to stand against it, but Korra pushed with so much force that he was thrown backwards through the small window at the end of the hallway.

Korra heard him yell as he fell.

She rushed to the window with the injured Asami in her hands.

What they saw was Amon standing atop a large pillar of water, his mask and his burn all gone. And below him was the crowd of Equalists that had gathered to watch the Revelation.

“Haha,” chuckled Asami weakly. “Suck it Amon!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow is Easter and family shenanigans might delay the posting of the epilogue some. I'll get to it when I get to it.


	20. Shadows of Amon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovery, consequences, hardcore trolling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are: the epilogue. One part actual story building and resolution, one part sequel baiting, one part unadulterated trolling on my part. Try to guess which part is which!

The battle was well and truly over, and Kya had her hands full. There were so many injured. A lot of police officers were injured and had their bending taken, including Lin.

Beifong was always a hard patient, but what stung Kya the most was just how... resigned to her fate she was. Lin was always getting into fights, getting hurt, as a kid, and as an adult, all the time. So as the resident healer, Kya was always the one to patch her up. Lin wouldn't risk going to Katara as a child and getting into trouble. She was always fidgety or uncooperative or even just stubborn; she'd never just given up like that, sat there and done exactly what Kya said without question. And it broke her heat to see her that way.

She'd already seen to Asami's arms. She set the bone and healed away the worst of the pain. The young woman understood that Kya needed to conserve her energy, so she left without getting fully healed.

Worst of all was Korra. She had no real external injuries. But her energy was all screwed up in knots. No amount of healing could fix it. So Korra had to live without her bending, at least for now.

The Avatar was listless, depressed, withdrawn. Asami got it, she understood. She did her best to be supportive, but how supportive could she really be? She'd been a secret bender for years now and she kept her bending, but Korra didn't.

Asami felt like she should say something to the Avatar, who sat alone in her room. But what could she say? What should she say? Instead, Asami just stood in the doorway and waited for a while for Korra to make some kind of move, say something, tell her what to do. But when nothing came from Korra, Asami just let her have her space.

Tenzin was working tirelessly with the Republic Forces to restore order to the city. So at least Korra didn't have to deal with that. It wasn't all that surprising when she boarded a predawn boat chartered for the Southern Water Tribe.

Katara was there, the world’s greatest healer. If anyone could fix her it would be Katara.

"I hope you didn't think you were going to do this on your own," Asami said from her position near the front of the boat.

Korra didn't say anything, she just shoved her hands in her pockets.

"Oh hell no," Asami said waving he cast-enclosed hands in the air. "You don't get to hold me up for months, help me through hell and high water, save my goddamn life more than once, and not let me even attempt to return the favor."

"I'm not the Avatar anymore," Korra sulked. "You don't have to pretend for me any longer."

Asami scowled. "You are so frustrating! But I'm going with you to the South Pole. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"You have things to do here."

"Like what? Go to jail? Watch my mother's company get cut up into tiny pieces and sold off for scrap? No, I'm going with you to help in whatever small way I can."

Korra grumbled unintelligible syllables and sat down for the long ride south.

The only thing the pair shared was space. No words passed between them. Not even a recognition that Lin was on the boat with them.

The silent support was all Asami knew how to do. And, all things considered, she didn't even know that. It was Kya that told her to go, she was the one that told her to go comfort Korra. Asami's first instinct was to give her space.

They were greeted by Katara, the wife of the previous avatar and one of the greatest healers the world has ever seen.

She wanted to take care of Asami's broken arms, but was waved off. Korra was more important than she was. Get Korra her bending back, take care of Beifong, then Asami's hands could get fixed.

Korra said nothing the entire time.

After several hours with Katara, they both emerged from the healing hut. Asami didn't need to hear Katara, she saw the results on Korra's eyes. The Avatar never looked so utterly defeated before.

"Korra," Asami said as she reached for the girl, but Korra pulled away.

"Don't," Korra snapped turning her back on Asami. "Just go away."

"I'm not going to abandon you."

"I'm not the Avatar anymore. Don't you get it? I'm useless now! What good is an Avatar that can't bend? I'm not important anymore!"

"You're important to me," Asami responded.

"Just go away Asami," Korra said angrily, her voice low and hurt. "Just leave."

The woman who Asami knew she loved but couldn't bring herself to say it got on her great polarbear-dog and rode off.

"Goddamn it Korra," Asami called. "I love you fucking idiot."

She stood there, alone, abandoned in the snow of the South Pole for a long moment. Asami Sato the person might still be a wreck, a paper thin imitation of a person built on a very shaky foundation of tiny truths, but she knew one thing about herself: she was determined. Asami Sato got what she wanted, she fought hard to get her way. And she'd be damned if she was going to let Korra get away with just a brush off.

Asami stole herself a snowmobile and followed after Naga's tracks.

"Hey," Asami said when she found Korra overlooking an ice cliff and the wide expanse of the ocean.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came here to tell you something. You didn't abandon me when I was injured and I’m sure as hell not leaving you now. For fuck’s sake, you haven’t even said word one about me lying to you about my bending. I'll give you space if that's what you need, but I'm not going to leave you to go through this alone."

"Thanks," Korra muttered into her coat. "Asami... seriously, thanks. But I need to be by myself right now."

"Ok," Asami nodded. Kya’s words echoed in her mind as she forced herself to move. She walked over to Korra to give her a hug. "I'll be in the village if you need anything."

"Ok."

"And Korra?" Asami whispered, barely audible even to herself. "I love you."

Before Korra could respond, Asami had gotten on her snowmobile and sped away, afraid of overstaying her welcome and more afraid of what it would mean to stay.

Tears were falling from behind blue eyes now. Fast, and steady; with no signs of stopping. It seemed like she had gotten the one thing she so desperately wanted to hear for the last several weeks, but now she had it she wasn't worth it anymore. She was not the Avatar, she was a failed Avatar now. Who would want someone has broken as her? How could anyone love someone who fucked up this badly?

Someone appeared beside her.

"I said I need to be alone," Korra snapped.

"But you called me here," came a voice she recognized as if it were her own.

"Aang?"

"Hello again Korra."

"I'm so sorry I failed."

"You didn't fail. You succeeded, and you did splendidly."

"But I lost my bending!"

"You are the Avatar. The elements are a part of you. Amon could never take that away." The previous Avatar extended a hand and touched Korra's forehead. "When we hit our lowest point we are open to the greatest change."

The weight, the shadow that had covered her, choked the life out of her, had been lifted. The colors in the world had returned.

Fire leapt from her hands, the earth moved beneath her feet, the water below her moved at her command, the air around her swirled.

"Thank you Aang!"

"You did this all yourself," he said.

"Thank you still. Now I need to go see someone."

 

* * *

 

 

"Hey!" Asami said, her green eyes lighting up and a smile adorning her perfect face.

Korra scowled. "Don't you ‘hey’ me, missy."

"What?"

"You owe me an explanation. Why couldn't I see you for a whole month?" the Avatar demanded.

Asami shrugged, platinum cuffs jangling slightly on her wrists. She took a deep breath. "Well my first day inside I got into a fight. No... more of a brawl."

"Seriously? You couldn't make it one day in jail without starting a riot?"

"It wasn't my fault! The guards just didn't see it that way," she muttered. Her orange jumpsuit wasn't doing much for Asami's makeup-less complexion. It clashed with her eyes. "But a lot of the bending prisoners saw me as the Equalist princess, and they tried to teach me a lesson."

Korra's expression softened. She reached out a hand to touch Asami's pale one. "I'm sorry."

"No touching!" yelled a guard.

Korra withdrew her hand and glared at the guard.

"So for putting six prisoners in the hospital with various broken bones, I was put in solitary for two weeks," Asami explained.

"That's not a month."

"Well, then I get out and someone in forms them that not only am I the Equalist princess, a traitor to said Equalists, but I'm also involved with the Avatar. Do you realize how many people you put in prison? Cause it's a lot. And they do not like you."

"I'm sorry you're still fighting my fights," Korra said.

"I'm not fighting your fights, I'm fighting my own. Everything that got me in here was my own doing. Anyways, how's the election going?" Asami asked, changing the subject and looking away from the Avatar’s sky blue eyes for just a second. By this point, elections were finally being held for President of the Republic. Korra wanted a representative body, a parliament or something; but she was shot down.

She'd been doing much better about not lying to Korra. But it wasn't like Korra ever called her out on the ones she noticed, and Asami was still too good at lying to get caught all the time. Korra didn't notice the lies about prison, but she noticed Asami's forced change in topics. But what was she supposed to say? The warden had Equalist ties and blamed her for the fall of her fortune? Or that the Equalist prisoners she helped put there wanted blood? Or how about the benders that hated her just as much as any Equalist? Or the criminals locked up by Korra that wanted to hurt the Avatar by going through Asami? Should she bring up the guards that tried to extort protection money out her? No, Korra has plenty of bigger things to worry about. It's not a lie, not really.

"It looks like Raiko's got it in the bag," Korra muttered angrily. "He said if he's elected he wants to extend your prison sentence. 6 months is already long enough away from you."

"Only five more to go," Asami smiled sadly. "And he can't do that. I plead guilty to everything and was sentenced. They can't change that or retry me. I'll serve my time and then I can go back to serving on Team Avatar."

"Then he'll do his best to throw it at your dad."

"Whoop-de-doo," Asami said darkly. "He deserves it."

"Oh yeah, one more thing," Korra started.

"Did Kya finally admit to being into Lin yet?"

"You mean the world’s worst kept secret? No."

"And after all the so called relationship advice she gave me..." Asami shook her head.

"Yeah.. Anyway a couple days after you get released its going to be the Southern Water Tribe Glacial Spirits Festival. Would you want to come with me? My parents kind of want to actually meet you and not awkwardly pass by in the night while we're both injured."

"N-" Asami started. She took a deep breath; clenched her hands, and waited a second before continuing. Korra waited patiently. Asami was fighting against the urge to say no. She had to rebuild her company. She had to wash her hair. She had to go shopping for clothes since she blew up her house. She needed to get a new house. A myriad of excuses plunged through her mind, and she waited out the wave of lies. Eventually a truth surfaced, and it scared her more than the lies. But one look at Korra and she knew she’d rather face scary truths and hide behind lies forever. "I'd love to. But they really want to meet a convicted felon?"

"They know you're not really a criminal."

"Which reminds me, I'll get to see you next week, right? For my fathers trial?"

"Absolutely. I'll be right there with you."

"That's gonna be the second worst testimony I'll ever have to give." The first was at her own hearing. She'd decided the be honest, to plead guilty to everything she did, everything they charged her for. She had to have her lawyer do most of the speaking for her, as her survival instinct was too strong. It wanted her to fight it tooth and nail. But that one inch, that inch that was really truly Asami which had been growing stronger with Korra, told her to face her consequences. And face them she did.

Tenzin's last act as Council Chair, and the last official act of the Council itself before the trials was to pardon her of most of her crimes. But some stuff, like perjury and destruction of property and fleeing Republic City (even if it was only for a few days to get Korra to and from the South Pole), earned her six months in prison.

Hiroshi Sato, however, had been fighting his charges since day one. The trial had dragged on for weeks. But that all changed when the prosecution called his daughter to the stand.

Asami shuffled into the court under armed metalbenders escort, platinum cuffs adorning her wrists and ankles, orange jump suit standing out vividly, her green eyes filled with disgust and disappointment.

"Miss Sato, thank you for agreeing to testify," the prosecutor said once Asami was sworn in. She was a severe looking older woman with tightly tied back blonde hair.

Asami saw Korra sitting right behind the prosecutor. The Avatar offered a small smile and a little wave. The prisoner offered a slight nod in her direction.

"Hello father," Asami said with as much venom as possible.

For the first time in a long time Asami told the truth, or most of it. For the first time in a long time Hiroshi Sato saw his daughter as she truly was: angry, bitter, broken, but pretty and alive and so much older than he rightfully remembered. How much of his daughter's life had he missed? More importantly, how much had he taken away?

Asami had just finished telling the court about her own crimes and how Hiroshi was the one that started her path to Equalist-hood.

"Stop," he said quietly but forceful.

"Council, please restrain your client," the judge said.

"I'm so sorry Asami," Hiroshi spoke again. "I'm sorry."

"Mister Sato it would behoove you to remain quiet," the judge ordered him.

"I wish to change my plea."

“Wait wait wait,” his defense lawyer said. “My client needs a brief recess. He’s emotional compromised over seeing his only daughter in cuffs.”

“I don’t need a recess,” Hiroshi said. “I plead guilty.”

After some legal hullabaloo and Hiroshi’s lawyer getting more and more frustrated, the aging former titan of industry changed his plea to ‘no contest’. He skipped over pleading guilty and told the court he’d accept whatever punishment they gave him without fighting it any longer.

Asami might not have forgiven him, but it helped ease some of her anger.

That night she slept much better than she had when she arrived in prison.

 

* * *

 

Words stirred her out of her contented slumber.

“Leaving again?”

Asami grumbled, it was too early for this.

“I’ve got a job to do.”

“And? You don’t start for another six hours.”

“You know why I can’t stay.”

The argument settled in a quiet rhythm for a bit and Asami felt herself drifting off again. Only to be stirred out of her slumber by the voices climbing again.

“Who gives a shit? The Avatar’s dating a woman.”

“She’s the Avatar, she can do whatever she wants.”

Some loud grumbling finally woke her up.

Asami untangled herself from Korra’s arms and looked out the little window to see two figures standing in the garden at midnight.

“You know I’ve only been out of prison for like twelve hours. I’m trying to get some sleep,” Asami said at the two arguing women.

“Shut up felon,” Lin Beifong grumbled.

“Oh for the love of Korra,” Asami said. “Will you two just make out already?”

“That’s not the problem,” Kya said sullenly with her arms folded.

Lin growled and threw a large rock at the window Asami was looking out of. It was just the right size to block out the view.

“What’s happening?” Korra asked as Asami pushed the rock out of the window.

“Lover’s spat,” Asami commented once Korra joined her at the window.

“Did you tell them to make out already?” Korra asked loud enough for Lin to hear her.

“Yeah, but I don’t think that’s the problem,” Asami shared a grin with Korra.

“Whoever’s bending out there, some of us need our beauty sleep!” an angry Meelo yelled from his window. “Aunt Kya, Aunt Lin, just go back to bed already!”

“Does everyone on this island know my business?” Lin grumbled.

“I think the only person in Republic City who doesn’t know your business is Tenzin,” Korra said with a mischievous little grin.

“Go back to bed!” Lin said as she tried to cover everyone’s windows again.

But the mischievous earthbending Asami removed them just as quickly.

“Everyone go back to sleep!” yelled the booming voice of Tenzin. “And just for the record I knew before anyone else!”

“Oh for the love of,” Lin said as she buried her face in her hands, trying to will everyone away.

“Korra, I just want to know that if Lin Beifong murders me, that I’ve always loved you,” Asami said with a kiss.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting her back for all the comments she made.”

Asami reached out with her hands and moved the earth beneath Lin and Kya’s feet. With a couple of quick, deft movements, the pair of them collided in an equally romantic and awkward pose. Kya had caught Lin as she was thrown off balance and was holding her in a slight dip.

Even in the dark Asami and Korra could see the blush.

“Just kiss each other and go back to bed!” Meelo yelled.

Asami shrugged, kissed Korra and climbed back into bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah the end. I remember when I started this almost exactly a month ago (first lines were written March 4th). I feel less of: FUCK YEAH I JUST DID THAT! That I usually feel when I complete (almost) novel length works. And more of "son of a bitch... that could have been better". Maybe I'll rework this whole thing at some point, do a massive rewrite and overhaul.  
> Anywho, enough bellyaching. Thanks for reading. Thanks for comments. Thanks for views and making this the most viewed/commented/kudos'd work I've ever written (fuck that's actually a bit depressing).  
> Not quite what was originally supposed to happen when I started writing, but then again how often is the ending ever really preserved at its inception?  
> I hope you all enjoyed it. I do have very definite plans for a sequel, but it will be a while before I get to it (I have to rewatch Book 3 and probably Book 4, which means first finishing Hannibal AND I'm not allowing myself to start a new project while I still have this unfinished Original Fiction Novel to finish that I started like seven months ago). There are some things I can say about it now though: 1.) I have no desire to retell book 2, mostly because nothing would change narratively, except Asami punching out Eska and Desna; 2.) Asami's backstory is slightly more complicated than was let on prior; 3.) I've been listening to Muse's new song Psycho (also Dead Inside) if that gives you any hints; 4.) the current working title is "A Master of Lying and Change".  
> But all of that is contingent on me actually getting work done, which might fall through because of the aforementioned lack of: FUCK YEAH feeling.  
> Maybe it's just been a long ass weekend, and maybe I shouldn't be up at 2am doing this. Maybe I should sleep. Fuck that, I've got shit to do.  
> See you on the flip side.  
> <3 Bourbon


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